Voyage of Convergance
by tenwaters
Summary: The time has come when all that swims the sea must be a prize, Set sail for adventure where the sky is not the limit. Warning here there be pirates of the caribbean and others.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One Embarkations

Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence ( a more fast moving story )as part of this work I am including all reference in both works in this disclaimer.

I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda,

Another Fine Myth, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Babylon 5, Back To The Future, Battlestar Galactica, Bolo(Book Series), Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Captain Ron, Charmed, Catch 22, Dark Angel, Diagnosis Murder, Doctor Who, Due South, Early Edition, Farscape,

Firefly, Forever knight, Friday the 13th: The Series, Hammers Slammers (Book Series),

Highlander, Indiana Jones, Knight Rider, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Lord of the Rings, Love and Curses, MacGyver, Malcolm In The Middle, Martial Law, McHale's Navy, Mech Warrior (Game), Men In Black, Murder she wrote, Nash Bridges, Night Stalker, One Thousand and One Nights,Operation Petticoat, Painkiller Jane, Pirates of the Caribbean, Quantum Leap, Quincy, Relic Hunter, Serenity, Seven Days, Sliders, Space Above and Beyond, Special Unit 2, Star Gate SG1, Star Trek, Star wars, Terminator, The Black Company (book Series), The Dresden Files, The Final Countdown, The Incredible Hulk, The Love Boat, The Odyssey, The Pretender, The Princess Bride, The Sentinel, The Wackiest Ship In The Army, The Wizard of Oz, Time Bandits. Time Tunnel, Transformers, Twenty thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Viper, Walker: Texas Range, X-Files, Whose products I have enjoyed in the past and recommend to the reader and make no claims on.

A Voyage of Convergence

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Chapter One Embarkations

For I am a Pirate King!

And it is, it is a glorious thing

To be a Pirate King! Gilbert & Sullivan, The Pirates of Penzance

Bitter-sweet was their parting as the man she loved returned to his ship. From behind her came a voice. "It was another who held his post for the last ten years so you could have this day. But you be mortal and he not quite. You were the tools of my vengeance and my freedom. I cannot let my tools lose their edge. I will not have our Captain go mad quite so soon. Come girl, we have much to do," said Calypso.

"Am I to trust you? Asked Mrs. William Turner.

"Only that moods do change and that I am in a pleasant one now," replied the Oceanid. She smiled and teased, "You must learn to read my moods you King of the Pirates. "Come now we must go," she said pulling Elizabeth by the arm.

"No I must wait on this Island for Will," insisted Elizabeth.

"No! you must be here for him ten years hence," but best you not be ten years older. I have a cousin who can help" The goddess paused reassessing then continued, But first you will have a baby to deliver.

The news shocked Elizabeth to silence.

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Out of Ithaca

Krytolandros the youngest son of Telemachus and Nausicaa with eleven bold companions set forth across a wine dark sea. He sought his own adventures following in the footsteps of his grandfather.

Nausicaa turned to her husband "He has your father's courage but not his wisdom I worry for him."

Telemachus stood silent on the shore thinking his oldest son Perseptolis had taken advantage of his younger brother...Could Krytolandros make it as a trader when he could not see the motives of his older sibling. The sea and the small round ship gave no answers as a fare wind carried it over the horizon.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Let Us Go A-Viking

Not long after the first breath of spring from shores Vineland a bold explorer did send his long boat south. Many a Viking set out seeking trade or plunder. But Halldór the Cold had a greater goal, warmer winters. And so it was with twenty bold companions he sailed off into obscurity.

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The Eight Voyage of Sinbad

A ship leaves Basra at its helm stands Sinbad the Porter. What you were expecting Sinbad the sailor. Well at least this guy knows the wealthy old guy of those seven voyages. Only two years ago the young porter paused to rest on a bench just outside the of a rich merchant's house. He sat and complained to Allah about the injustice of the world. What was it that allows the rich to live in ease while no matter how he toiled he still remained poor. The owner of the house overheard him and sent for him. It turned out both shared the same name Sinbad. The rich Sinbad told of how he became wealthy "by Fortune and Fate." The old merchant told his tale of his first voyage in great detail and gave Sinbad the porter a gift of a hundred pieces gold and, bid him to return the next day to hear more. Have more money from the day then he would earn in a year. Sinbad the porter naturally returned. The rewards the merchant gave on the next six days were not of a monetary nature the old man set him up with contacts and an apprenticeship with a ships captain. Only two years later Sinbad was now a captain in command of a ship of his own. Actually the Chimera was owned by the older Sinbad but the former porter had been given the command of the ship to execute a daring charter. Sinbad would map the entire route around Africa from Basra to Alexandria. And so with prayers to Allah and a spirit of adventure the ship set sail.

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Come, friends, who plough the sea,

Truce to navigation;

Take another station;

Let's vary piracee

With a little burglaree! Gilbert & Sullivan, The Pirates of Penza

Somewhere east of Gilder and south of Florin a ship some what sleeker than your standard high-boarded cog plows the waves. The Dread Pirate Roberts at its helm a man that once sought only of revenge now sails to make a profit. The man in black drills his crew without mercy his men are quick to obey his order all fear the scourge of the seas. The bearer of a secret legacy plots his course in search of plunder.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Wade in the water (children)

Wade in the water

Wade in the water

God's gonna trouble the water A slave song

Setting off from Tortuga Captain Jack Sparrow boldly pilots a small skiff. After one day at sea come across a small merchant man seemingly adrift. He maneuvered his small craft alongside the small two masted ship. Tentatively he hailed the ship. He was answered by a groan. He came closer the ship smelled of death and decay. The ship was a slaver. The crew and human cargo lay dead or dyeing on the deck. Sparrow did what he could. He brought the ship to anchor. He cleared the deck of corpses and began nursing the living. Over the next three days he lost three more. In the end there were only four living men aboard the ship besides himself. On the southern coast of Cuba they made a stop to hunt fresh water and provisions. As they healed the Captain (despite more than few major language difficulties) worked the three ex-slaves and one ex-slaver into a crew. The Reta was the ships name well a Captain can always change that but for now sparrow had other things on his mind.

Three days out of Cuba Munanire saw the masts of a ship, he called to the Captain. Jack Sparrow brought his telescope to bear on the familiar ship waiting for him at anchor.

"She is a Pirate!" warned Peter Woodland the one trained seaman in his small crew

"Of course she is that is the Black Pearl run up this flag and single to parley" Ordered Sparrow as he handed his first mate a black cloth.

"She is riding a bit high in the water not carrying much" said Joshamee Gibbs.

"Probably not a prize worth taking," Commented Captain Hector Barbossa. "Prepare to get underway Master Gibbs he should not tarry here much longer." ordered Barbossa.

"Wait sir, those colors, it is Captain Sparrow!" exclaimed Gibbs.

A short time later in the captain's cabin of the Black Pearl Barbossa and Sparrow conversed over a pint of rum. "I have a simple solution to these little problems of Captaincy we keep having" Jack announced.

"And what would that be!" snapped Barbossa.

"Why simply you Captain the Pearl, Gibbs Captain the Reta and you both declare me Admiral of our fleet," Pronounced Sparrow.

"I suppose you want the Pearl as Flagship and the Rita is short crew," mused Barbossa.

"Well I think you can spare a few men and I would assume my flag captain would like to keep a close eye on his admiral,' offered Sparrow.

A short wile later Admiral Jack Sparrow briefed Gibbs on his new command. "One last thing Captain Gibbs. A few of your crewmen are under the impression we on a course for the continent of Africa, please genteelly inform them we are not on the most direct root," whispered the Admiral into Gibbs' ear in parting.

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I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade

He'd let us in, knows where we've been

In his octopus' garden in the shade The Beatles

Somewhere off the coast of Bermuda a 70 meter long cigar shape craft glides through clear warm waters. A wreck is sited and divers are dispatched. From his observation port Captain Nemo watches his men's activities. The wreck is fairly fresh the ship a victim of a storm only a week ago. The operation takes over two hours. His men report the new is good they recovered something more precious than gold the contents of a watertight compartment filled with coffee. Fully caffeinated the Nautilus resumed her trek beneath the waves.

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There are some who are in darkness

And the others are in light

And you see the ones in brightness

Those in darkness drop from sight From Mack the Knife

composed by Kurt Weill

with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht f

As an old tramp steamer headed south well-off the Grand banks of Caroline Captain William Krane had time to reflect. This was looking to be a profitable run. True he had to pick both his cargo and passengers up at sea. True he just offloaded his last cargo onto small boats but Fine Irish was a cargo frowned upon in the now temperate United States. True revolutionaries he was delivering his load of guns to would also require some offshore freight expediting. True his passengers were a well dressed rouges ally. But all in all it looked that this would be a profitable and hopefully not too exciting run.

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I have heard people rant and rave and bellow

That we're done and we might as well be dead,

But I'm only a cockeyed optimist

And I can't get it into my head. South Pacific the musical

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Slipping quietly from a secluded cove the USS Kiwi sails on the evening tide. The 70-year-old wooden twin-masted schooner has just finished a resupply mission to a cost watcher well behind Japanese lines. Lieutenant Riddle directed his crew to run up the sails. He was pleasantly suspired by their proper execution of his orders two months ago most of his men had never set foot on a sailing ship one member of his crew had never seen the ocean. Now he enough confidence in them that he believed he might survive the year. As they hit open water he handed the helm to Chief Miller and asked him how the work on the engines was going.

"Sir they are ready for use but we will need some parts soon," reported the Chief.

"OK steady as she goes, I am going below to talk with Major Butcher," Riddle told the Chief.

Major Simon Butcher sat in the small cabin a sealed dated envelop sat before him. As Lieutenant Riddle entered the room he handed the envelope to Riddle, "We are at sea so you get to do the honors," said Butcher.

"OK, well here goes nothing," said Riddle as he opened the sealed orders. He read the orders slowly somewhat enjoying keeping his Army counterpart in suspense. Satisfied that he had moved Butcher to the edge of his seat he said, "Rendezvous with USS. Sea Tiger for re-supply and receive further orders."

Major Butcher nodded and said, "great we are running low on everything especially coffee and toilet paper."

Riddle agreed and began plotting the course.

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Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh.

Farewell to foreign shores, We sail at break of day, of day.

Through our last night on shore, Drink to the foam:

Until we meet once more.

Here's wishing you a happy voyage home! "Anchors Aweigh"

song of the United States Navy,

composed by Charles A. Zimmerman

lyrics by Alfred Hart Miles.

On the island of Taratupa an important strategic planning meeting was underway. Mister. Parker had just returned with orders from the main island. Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale called his men to some semblance of order. "All right you pirates we got orders and a job to do."

"Tonight did old Leadbottom come up with this just to disrupt the blackjack tournament," asked Gruber.

"No, this one is direct from Admiral Reynolds," said McHale.

"So what do we have to do," asks Harrison "Tinker" Bell.

"Just a nice quite little moonlit cruise to a small Island that barely appears on the charts, we are going to pick up some flyboy who a problem with his fuel tanks," said McHale.

With that said the true planning began.

As the sun set PT 73 skimmed the waves on it's mission of mercy.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Love, exciting and new

Come Aboard. We're expecting you

Love, life's sweetest reward.

Let it flow, it floats back to you.

The Love Boat soon will be making another run

The Love Boat promises something for everyone

Set a course for adventure,

Your mind on a new romance. "The Love Boat"

by Paul Williams and Charles Fox

The Pacific Princess sat proudly illuminating the dockside. Aboard the ship Captain Merrill Stubing assembles his crew for a briefing.

"Why the late night boarding asked," Julie McCoy the ship perky Cruise Director.

"Our next voyage is a corporate charter for the firm of Mindbender & Jag. The client has requested a certain level of discretion. Julie, please note the instructions on the passenger list," instructed Stubing.

"It says, Confidential Wedding Guest List Do Not Remove from Ship, Burn at end of voyage," Read Julie.

"Well that is definitely not your normal guest list," Doctor. Adam Bricker.

"These aren't your re normal wedding guests most are veterans of the Chicago Incursion two years ago," Said Stubing.

"The people who stopped the alien invasion?" asked Burl "Gopher" Smith, the ships Yeoman Purser

"Yes, and many on the guest list are United Nations Task Force for Inter Species Cooperation (UNTFISC) agents. That is the reason for the tightened security and late night boarding. Julie, you Gopher should get ready to greet our security details they are do to arrive in about twenty minutes" Said Stubing.

The customs and security in the boarding area was far more professional than normal TSA personnel. Four men and two women securitized the process as they went through it themselves. "Why did they pull us off our normal mission to play nurse maid to a cruise ship," asked Maureen Bowers.

"Ship load of VIPs, need for descretion, and they told me they wanted the best, most of the people here are law inforcement and military types, also there is the issue of most of the pasengers will be allowed to keep their weapons onboard," stated Andre McBride

"That is insane," said Riley Jensen.

"Would you travel any other way," said Jane Vasco retreaving her weapons from a man in a TSA uniform.

"Not I,"concured Connor King .

"Thank you Connor, for helping me make my point," quiped Riley.

The group put on their game faces as they boarded the ship.

"Good evening and welcome aboard the Pacific Princess," said the cheerful Cruise Director. Julie looked over the dower looking six members of the security team. It was defanitly a study in contrasts: One of the guys looked more like he was here to mug the ship then protect it, another was dark handsome clean cut and professional, the third was short skinny and possibly unacquainted with personal hygiene. The oldest of the men seamed to anchor the group he seamed very intense. The two women were kind of tall looked more like fashion models then cops. The Intense guy was the first to speak. Clearly in charge he quickly introduced the rest of his group. McBride requested to be taken to see the captain while his people took a tour of the ship. Gopher took McBride to see Captain Stubing while Julie gave the others a tour.

An hour later Gopher and McBride brought a squad of marines aboard. At eleven PM the first of the guests arrived.

It was not quite the normal boarding with the two marine guards and Jane Vasco screening the guests but Julie did her best to carry on as if this was a normal cruise.

With a final check of the guests ID and invatation the young marine in dress blue uniform anounced "Mr. Alexander LaVelle Harris"

A square jawed young man with a patch over one eye in casual atire that flagrently disregarded any sense of color boarded the ship. "Good evening Mr Harris I am Julie your Cruise Director welcome aboard the Pacific Princess." smiled Julie.

"Thank you Julie I have always wanted a Cruise Director," teased Xander.

Julie told him were to find his cabin.

Three women were next Phoebe Halliwell, Piper Halliwell, and Paige Matthews. They exchanged pleasenties with juli e and moved on to find their cabins.

The next party of four was a bit odd three good looking men and a pitite young women. Two of the men had one word names Spike and Angel Julie thought thay were some sort of code names. Julie greeted them and asked if ther was some mistake in the cabin asignment, cabins C7, C8 and C9 were well below the water line and the ship was not full they were usally used for crew. The others two were a bit odd as well the black man seemed to be recovering from an injury and the women seamed to sometimes forget her name. At least Charles Gunn got a good cabin. Poor Miss Burkle was also below the water line. For some reason they reasisted the offer of a better cabin.

Next aboard were the guests of honor Ian Matheson and Randi Wallace the couple had been instrumental in negotiating the end of the Chicago Incursion. This cruise was to be both wedding and honeymoon. Julie welcomed them and had Gopher escort them to their suite.

Frank Parker and Olga Vukavitch were an interesting couple they could not seem to decide if they were flirting or fighting. Olga said that they were work associates but Julie could tell there was a bit more than that. Julie gave them directions to their cabins just as they were about to leave the reception area McBride returned. Parker recognized McBride.

"You old SOB what are you doing here," asked Parker.

"It's been a long time Parker last I heard you were in the nut house." replied McBride.

"They let me out on bad behavior", quipped Parker.

"Are you with the bride or the Groom?" asked Olga.

"Ships security," answered McBride.

Parker looked surprised. "Never figured you for working for a cruise line," said Parker.

"One time only favor for a few old company friends," McBride supplied.

"OK, talk later," saying that, Parker turned back to Julie and asked, "One last question, where's the bar?"

Jane Vasco was still museing about her boss and Parker when she got the oddest felling something about the next two seemed to scream at her.

Duncan Macleod and Amanda Smith felt it as soon as they entered the boarding area. They both turned to see a tall blond starring at them. They silently communicated to each other that this one was unknown to either of them.

An expert people watcher Julie noticed something odd about Jane's reaction to the two guests. While Julie was talking the dark haired man, Miss Smith introduced herself to Vasco. While Duncan received the information on cabins, Amanda gathered the more important information.

As they moved deeper into the ship Amanda whispered to Duncan "I think she is new, untrained in the game, and a bit confused."

Dr. Pablo Cruz and Rupert Giles were the next to check in the English men and the Latin were discussing something about jaguar cults as they worked into the reception area. Dr. Cruz was carrying something that looked like a bait bucket with a note attached. He handed it to Julie. It had a diplomatic seal on it (the note and the bait bucket). The note was addressed to the Captain and Crew of the Pacific Princess. All Cruz sad by way of explanation was "Babel fish you are going to need them."

Julie used the ships intercom to page gopher, and greeted the next guests three girls in there twenties and one in here teens. "Faith Lehane, Willow Rosenberg, Buffy Summers, Dawn Summers" read the marine doing his best to remain professional as Faith tried to flirt with him. "Oh, I get the old on duty thing I'll catch you later," said Faith.

After the Cruise Director had given them their welcome and directions Faith asked "Will stud-muffins be coming along."

"His squad of marines has been added as reinforcements to the ships security," supplied Vasco.

"I feel safer already," said the slayer.

"Just what Faith needs a Cruise with a smorgasbord," commented Willow.

Despite his somber military bearing the marine corporal's face was starting to match the red stripe on his trousers.

Dawn turned to Buffy and asked, "With you and Dawn here who is minding the store"?

"I am trying to teach the girls to be a bit more self-reliant, besides the biggest missions we have going on right now evolve newspapers and baby sitting," replied Buffy.

As another group came along the marine announced: "Kate Benson, Boras, Carl, Kevin Brown, John Doggit, James Edwards, Fox Mulder, Nick O'Malley, Sean Radmon, Monica Reyes, Dana Scully."

All eleven including the two Gnomes wore the black suite that had become the uniform for agents of the United Nations Task Force for Inter Species Cooperation (UNTFISC).

The group moved through the reception area until the next guest J.B. Fletcher

was announced and Doggit's head wiped around to stare at the elderly woman.

Shortly after that Riley Jensen ran up to Vasco and handed her an annotated guest list. Jane quickly scanned the annotations Cops, Doctors (mostly coroners), scientists, vampires, aliens, demons, links, vigilantes, blogers, Journalists, lawyers, politicians, and diplomats. Just as the marine announced Ambassador Bexare, Gopher handed her a Babel fish and Riley supplied her with two aspirin.

While Jane was placing the fish in her ear and the aspirin in her mouth a meter tall teddy bear in a tuxedo walked up to the Cruise Director. As the Ambassador went off to find his quarters Jane hoped things would not get any weirder. They did the ship still left in time. Two hours out of port two late arrivals joined the trip a harpy and a flying monkey named LoBo.

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Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,

A tale of a fateful trip

That started from this tropic port

Aboard this tiny ship. Gilligan's Island Theme

On a hot August afternoon a plane arrived at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. A small group of people gathered together as they debarked the plane. A middle aged man carried a toddler and a middle aged woman carried a baby. The group also included blond young man and an Asian woman, two other young men and a teenage boy. The older women headed them to the baggage claim area with the air of a drill sergeant. Hal Wilkerson said to her "I can't believe you won a free cruise and family reunion.

"Well I was employee of the month three time last year and it was a drawing from all the employees of the month company wide in a six month period" said Lois.

"It is still Lucky Aide we are talking about, I am still suspicious," commented a .

"It is Florida in August, big deal they are doing it a little on the cheap," said Francis.

After they gathered their bags together Dewey discovered a man holding a sign that read Wilkerson family. The man welcomed them and led them to a most impressive white hummer limousine. The vehicle comfortably accommodated all nine of them plus their luggage. Things were looking up. This did not last long however as the driver seemed to be lost (this despite rather extensive uses of a rather expensive looking GPS in his dash board). After passing the same 7-Eleven five times Dewey made a request to use the facilities Lois seconded the idea.

A sort time latter the family returned to the vehicle with Slurpees and directions. The road to the marina was at the time in the middle of a construction site. The only way in at present was by cutting through the back lot of a bait shop. As the hummer rounded the bait shop a forest of masts appeared and the limousine ground to a halt at sign that said pier 3. "These aren't cruise ships," observed Lois.

"No Mrs. Wilkerson they are yachts"

Two ships were docked at the pier their names could be easily read as the family disembarked from the hummer the Minnow was a seventy-five foot long motor yacht and the Adventure Galley a one-hundred-five foot long Trimaran sailing yacht. Almost in unison the Wilkersons realized the horror of what was about to befall them, this would be a week long cruise, alone with each other.

From behind them, what looked to be an unshaven one eyed bum approached them. He asked them "Is one of you Lois Wilkerson?"

Lois turned to dirty unshaven man with the eye path and admitted with some trepidation "I am Lois Wilkerson."

Finding a rag to wipe the grease of his hands he offered went to shake her hand and said, Congratulations on winning the Lucky Aide family cruise, I am Captain Ron."

After a few seconds of awkward silence Lois began introducing the rest of the family.

While shaking hands with the friendly but smelly captain, Malcolm asked him in whispered tones, "lowest bidder?"

In an equally hushed tone Captain Ron confessed, "no, brother-in-law is on the board of Lucky Aide.

Finished with the introductions Captain Ron welcomed them aboard the Adventure Galley and showed them their quarters. "My crew is out gathering provisions" said the Captain as he brought Lois' bags to her cabin he lingered there waiting for something.

Hal was about to tip him when Lois realized what he was after and rallied the boys to bring in the rest of the luggage.

A short time later a beat up old VW micro-bus pulled up to the dock three young women got out and began hauling groceries onto the yacht. "Uncle Ron we got the food," yelled the cute brunette as she and the slightly older blond twins came to the boarding plank. Dewey, Malcolm, and Reese required little in the way of invitation to begin helping the girls move the large amount of groceries. By the time the provisions were stowed the boys had made the boys had introduced them selves to the crew. Still Captain Ron did formally introduce his crew nieces Elaine, Pamela and Sue to his passengers. For Dewey, Malcolm, and Reese now seamed to be looking forward to the voyage. As Lois and Hal worried Captain Ron ordered the girls to make ready. They would have probably launched sooner if it was not for the boys trying to help and receiving a sailing 101 course from Sue.

As the ship cleared the inlet Captain Ron gave the orders to raise sail. As the Adventure Galley took the wind the engines went quite. The wind the and sea and the ship were their entire world on that blue sunlit afternoon as the hotel spangled coast faded behind them. It so seemed the start of a lovely voyage.

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Revvin' up your engine

Listen to her howlin' roar

Metal under tension

Beggin' you to touch and go

Highway to the Danger Zone

Ride into the Danger Zone Danger Zone Lyrics

Kenny Loggins

It was business as usual on the flight deck of the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) as the F-18 left nearly forty year old leviathan. She and the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) were steaming to New York City for a July 4th celebration. Captain Harry Blake coordinated with his opposite on the amphibious assault ship. This was a much needed change from their recently completed tour of the Persian Gulf. Air operations between the two ships were going remarkable smoothly the two ships had developed a close working relation on over the last year. Captain Barry Evans of the Richard had come aboard the Nimitz along with commanders of several other ships of the joint task force to plan their next mission, liberty during fleet week in the Big Apple, The meeting lasted two hours after which helicopters ferried the precipitants back to their ships.

As the Commanders departed Lieutenant Grady Halibut the ships single officer greeted him with a printout. "Sir, I believe you will find these papers in good order," said the Lieutenant. The Captain looked at the two E-Tickets Halibut had handed him and said "very good Mr. Halibut, Mrs. Blake has been looking forward to seeing that play." As the ship steamed on little did the Captain know that he would never get to use those tickets.

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Take my love, take my land

Take me where I cannot stand

I don't care, I'm still free

You can't take the sky from me.

Take me out to the black

Tell them I ain't comin' back

Burn the land and boil the sea

You can't take the sky from me. The Ballad of Serenity

by Sonny Rhodes - Firefly Lyrics

It had been thirty saddle sore hours, leading half a dozen saddle bums and three dogs to the hidden site. It is not the easiest thing to try to rescue a flock of pedigree sheep from the middle of a range war, but someone was paying some big bucks to get it done. That is why Malcolm Reynolds and Jayne Cobb had spent the last two days with this motley group of shepherds and hired guns.

The men and dogs worked the herd into the small box canyon a wire fence was quickly drawn across the cannon entrance. It still took over two hours to get all the sheep into the ships hold. As River Tam brought the last lamb aboard the Captain Reynolds fell asleep doing the inventory. Zoe Washburne made the final arrangements with the drovers while Kaylee and Simon loaded the exhausted Captain into his quarters. As River ran the preflight Cobb stumbled bowlegged into the galley where he fell asleep in a bowl of chilly. With River at the helm Serenity rose into the night sky.

Two days out from the planet Serenity's captain rested and cleaned made a course correction. The trip was uneventful a definite blessing. Their luck still held as they delivered the cargo got paid and took on new supplies. Kaylee even found a farmer that paid for a load of fertilizer. They took on a cargo of packaged noodles to take to a mining station. Simon and Kaylee found a rather useful junk yard that had several useful replacement parts. For them it amounted to an incredible run of luck. It was just to good to be true. As the Serenity lifted in search of lo mein munching Miners the pendulum of luck was about to be cut lose. Partner I mean not just swing back and fourth but head off way yonder in some other totally loco direction. Yes, grasshopper the crew was headed for some interesting times.

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Here's health to you and to our Corps

Which we are proud to serve

In many a strife we've fought for life

And never lost our nerve;

If the Army and the Navy

Ever look on Heaven's scenes;

They will find the streets are guarded

By United States Marines. U.S. Marine Corps Hymn third verse

Captain Nathan West had a very busy six months, busy was good it didn't give you time to dwell on the things that if you thought to long about would have you crawling into a tight little ball in your rack and, and, were best not to think about. So what he and 1st Lt. Cooper Hawkes did think about was the new TO&E and the ten newbies that they had to make into a unit. The new Hammerheads were faster more maneuverable and better armed then their predecessor. The new armored drop ships were driving the maintenance crews nuts. With only thirty days before the 58th was do for deployment West new he had to push these kids hard. When did they start looking so young, he was what five years older then the youngest, dam another one of things not to think about. Practice in the simulates and in the birds. Then their was the two squads of dedicated infantry, how old school 1st LT Goldstein was coming along nicely with them but they needed more joint practice. Those dam drop ships were costing them valuable training time.

One month later the Wildcards joined the newly refitted Saratoga. 1st Lt. Cooper Hawkes was running the morning briefing. "Alright listen up people. Chig operation in this area have been limited to light harassment and delaying raids. Expect small gunships and we believe a squadron of fighters has been operating out of a base somewhere in this system's rather heavy asteroid field. Be on the look out for AI operations in the area we believe the AIs are running supplies to the base. We believe the Chigs in this area are out of communication for the most part. There is extensive asteroid mining in the area so be careful who you shoot at there are lots of civilians in this system. We have three separate mining operations in the area plus a few wildcats all known IDs have been loaded to your HUD computers. We made also be called upon to keep the miners from shooting each other over claims. Most of the humans in system speak either English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, or Arabic. The 9th Carrier group consists of the Saratoga and its escorts, the 17 Fighter Group will be conducting CAP and fleet security. Our mission is customs inspection we will be stopping and inspecting random civilians for contraband while trying to find the Chig base. Please reference unit SOP page 25. Please note that asteroids 127, 511, 1142 are alternate landing sites if you cannot make it back to Saratoga. Assignments: Barnes and Młynarczyk will fly high cover, Charles and O'Brien will fly low Cover, French and Smith will fly point, Chen and Weber will fly trail, Lamont an I will cover Goldstein in Dropship one, The Old man and Zook will cover Lewis in Dropship two. Any Questions?"

2lt William French asked, "Sir, how much separation do you want between elements?"

"One standard unit in open space and about a third of that in the asteroids," answered Hawkes.

Ten minutes of questions later Hawkes wished them good hunting and they were off.

Two hours later the Squadron was picking its way through the asteroid field in search of suspicious activity what they found was something they never expected.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

God, grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

the courage to change the things I can;

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Success has it's price wealth and power come with responsibility. Over the years you learn that the more you control the more people are affected by your actions. In his youth Lando Calrissian had the opportunity to see the consequences of his actions magnified by the power of his leadership. Ben Skywalker had more responsibility thrown at him earlier than any man he knew except maybe his father. Luke could not communicate to his son that fatherly advice on how to deal with all the pressure. So somehow the Jedi Master had talked Lando into taking a long trip with Ben to give him that fatherly advice that he would not listen to coming from his father. The mission to Zambonee four did not require a retired General and a Jedi. The conversation did require time and threading through a system of nebulas out on the rim would take a lot of time, time to talk, time to think, and time to rest from the weight of the Galaxy.

Lando and Ben prepared for the first Jump. The Century Eagle was a nostalgic indulgence, a rich man's toy it started as a stock Corellian YT1300 but was lovingly redone as a decoy for the Millennium Falcon without the budget constraints. The jump coordinates were quickly set R8U248 concurred and the ship jumped into hyperspace.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy

Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke

The raid on the enemy listening post went flawlessly; the tin cans never knew what hit them. Theirs was third and most difficult of eight separate simultaneous raids. The strategy was simply hit the enemy in so many places at once they could not respond to all of them and create enough confusion that the fleet could slip safely through the area.

Starbuck, Apollo, and Sheba in their vipers were flying cover for Boomer in a shuttle with the raiding team the mission now was to get home without giving away the fleets position. To do this they would need to go quite and coast for a considerable distance. They maneuvered into position and cut engines and began the long quite wait watching passive sensors. They were almost home free when Starbuck spotted a Cylon patrol. Using a tight beam he warned he others. For a few tense centons they waited hoping not to be spotted. Disappointment turned to action as the Cylons began to maneuver for a closer look. "I count nine hostels," said Boomer. Starbuck, Apollo, and Sheba in the Vipers moved to intercept Boomer maneuvered to but distance between the shuttle and the Cylons. With a head on pass the vipers eliminated three foes then the dogfight began in earnest as Starbuck and Apollo turned into the Cylons while Sheba sprinted to guard the shuttle. Another Cylon fell to Apollo while Starbuck maneuvered to get two Cylons off his tail. Sheba blew away one of the two Cylons that was heading for the shuttle . One Cylon broke off allowing Apollo to aid his wingman. With the numbers now even the vipers made quick work of the three remaining raiders. As they formed backup on the shuttle Apollo ordered, we have been spotted, and one got away, execute evasion plan Delta, move to alternate rendezvous site three. The circuitous route home would become more so.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Living well is the best revenge George Herbert

For Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd the inconvenient interventions of James T. Kirk had always been most vexing. Kirk's sadistic comic sense of justice cost Mudd a lot and yet somehow fate and time were on Mudd's side. Who would have thought Stella was a marketing genius, That wile he was in rehab the women would take a pocket full of smuggled Klingon coffee beans and his shady reputation and create the raktajino empire. His role these days was to make public appearances playing the charming rough. To aid him these endeavors Stella had acquired a salvaged Klingon ship from the bottom of San Francisco Bay and had it restored. She had not really rehabilitated him and still drove him crazy but things had mellowed to an "understanding." The HMS Bounty had a very interesting Crew an Orion (male) navigator, a Klingon (male) security officer, an Andorian (male) Public relations manager, and a Vulcan(female) engineer (Stella had final say on all hiring). Still the irony of having one of Kirks old ships custom fitted as his own luxury yacht was almost worth putting up with his wife. As a sly smile lifted the corner of his mustache Captain mud ordered the warp to engage as he departed on a five system book tour.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

'Democracy is the worst form of government,

with the exception of all others. Winston Churchill.

With the Systems Commonwealth rebuilt and Tarn-Vedra restored you might think that Captain Dylan Hunt might be doing the happily ever after, but to think that would be very naïve one would be totally ignoring the very dynamic nature of intelligent living species, the nature of politics, and the nature of one most singular High Guard officer. Keeping the various elements of the Systems Commonwealth was only part of the problem as competing interests and ambitions pulled the fledgling democracy one way and then another. Due to a strong lobby by several ship yards the High Guard was rapidly developing the problem of more ships than crews and Dylan had some doubts as to the quality of the new ships. With the scores of committee meetings, hearings, and affairs of state Dylan jumped at the chance to leave the Capital to investigate several incidences of plain old piracy. With his still short handed crew he departed Tarn-Vedra to one of the newer members of the Commonwealth. It was not long after they exited slipstream that Trance Gemini with the uncharacteristic cry of, "uht-oh" informed them that this would be far from the start forward mission Dylan had hoped for.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Neil Armstrong

D'Argo Sun Crichton circles a small round end table in one of Moya's larger cabins. His parents call to him with outstretched arms. The child circles the table again carefully holding on to the table for balance as a DRD records the action. Noticing the small Diagnostic Repair Drones the child gives chase forgetting the fact that he has never tried bipedal locomotion without using secondary support. As the DRD beats a hasty retreat the child takes his first steps. Hearing the commotion in the only currently occupied cabin Moya alerts Pilot who inquires, "is everything all right?"

"Better than all right" replied the proud father.

The last few months had been like a pleasant dream for John and Aeryn as they leisurely traveled about the galaxy running freight and acting as mediators on various minor disputes. Only two weeks after D'Argo's first steps catching the very mobile young man was becoming a major challenge for the Crichton's. Avoiding D'Argo was becoming a major challenge for the DRDs. Three weeks later Chiana tired of Rygel and Rygel's court returned to the ship. It was however a bit unfortunate that the second thing she heard after the hugs and hellos was Pilot complaining, "D'Argo is attacking the DRD's again."

There was an awkward silence as the ghostly words penetrated Chiana's sole. Aeryn realized those old words had a whole new meaning. Her son was awake and had found out a way to get out of his cabin. Aeryn sprinted out of the hanger bay to give chase to the toddler. John's mind worked a little slower about two seconds latter John exclaimed, "the baby!" and ran out.

Chiana followed the panicked parents in time to see the keystone cop chase as the two parents pursued the toddler. As the child moved in and out of places to small for his pursuers a DRD attempted to follow the DVD reemerged with the toddler hot pursuit. As the concerned parents intercepted the child while the DRD made it's excape through John's legs, Chiana for the first time in months laughed.

As Chiana settled in Pilot announced they Moya was ready for star burst and so with Chiana and a load of seed grain they headed off to the next leg of their trade root.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country."

Henry Wotton

It was a simple diplomatic mission in answer to a request from the Ventuki Conglomerate only one Whitestar was sent but it contained some of the ISA's most senior diplomats. One the bridge of the Whitestar Delenn, G'Kar, Zack and Lyta speculated on the Vree's cryptic summons. Zack reread the communication:

"Please send diplomatic and scientific aid have intercepted communication from ancient and dangerous probe"

"What is it with the Vree and probes?" asked Zack

"I prefer not to dwell on that. What is more important is why the Vree would ask for outside help," commented Lyta.

"I concur" said G'Kar

"Unfortunately we will find out very little more until we get their.

In another cabin of the craft Dr. Franklin was entertaining the three ISA scientist they could get together on short notice T'Nrath a narn, Dr. Gerald Hagar, and a Minbari called Tulann. As the conversation changed from the current mission to an obscure form of mathematics Franklin decided it was time to freshen his coffee. Seconds later the ship entered hyperspace.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lord's Prayer

The workstation was finally ready, assembled from the Asgard instructions from the Odyssey, the computer was ready to hold a copy of the Asgard data. Colonel Samantha Carter initiated three days later the download was complete. Carter began the diagnostic routine to verify the integrity of the download. The next day was for celebration the priceless information had been transferred. Just as Dr. Daniel Jackson was about to propose a toast he was interrupted by a Thor hologram.

"Please check the dynamic sensor array interface and call Colonel Carter," the holographic Asgard insisted.

Twenty rechecks later the Thor simulation was willing to accept the information from the sensor array was correct. "Colonel Carter we are picking up a signal that is most unexpected. It is from a probe we Asgard sent out over four thousand years ago." Said the hologram. "We had hoped this information would not be needed we locked it away from ourselves, however this communication has triggered an emergency protocol please study files "Forbidden Knowledge 7811, Secret Treaties 110, Practical Demonology, and selected reading on inter-dimensional travel. I will be available for discussion as soon as you are ready." The hologram completed and disappeared.

What the hell was that about?" Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell asked.

"I am not sure but it doses not sound good" stated Daniel Jackson.

"Is it me or did Thor seem embarrassed" asked Vala Mal Doran.

Sam just read the files. Daniel joined her. Mitchell realized it would be a while before he would have any answers to his questions.

Five days later

Major General Hank Landry convened the meeting the SG1 team was there along with several other scientists, technicians and the commanders of three other SGC teams. Landry began, "ladies and gentleman please make yourselves comfortable this is going to be a long meeting. Two weeks ago we assembled an Asgard computer system and sensor array to both preserve the Asgard information and provide Earth a more effective early warning system. This system was part of the final legacy gift from the Asgard. Six days ago that system started receiving a transmission that triggered a hidden protocol in the Asgard system revealing hidden files in the Asgard gift. Mr. Jackson will you continue," said Landry as he ceded the floor to Jackson.

"From what we determined from the Asgard legacy files by accepting said legacy we gained in addition to a vast amount of technical knowledge a responsibility to honor a few treaty commitments the Asgard had previously made. This week we discovered that the Asgard knowledge base has a vast number of emergency protocols that keep information encrypted until a situation arises that the AI routine determines requires a need to know. The transmission we received met the criteria for several such emergency protocols." Jackson stated. "Colonel Carter will now brief you on the nature of this emergency." finished Jackson.

"Most of you have a passing familiarity extra dimensional devises such as the ZPM, hyper drives, Merlin's out of phase cloaking device, and the Quantum Mirror. The Asgard made many experiments in extra dimensional physics their initial experiments were extremely power consuming. The Asgard sent out a significant number of probes to explore other dimensions they harnessed the forces of a collapsed universe to meet the power needs of these probes. They later found out that there brute force method caused many unpleasant side effects in the universes they entered. They made contact with several displeased ancient extra dimensional races. In order to save themselves and the surrounding galaxies the Asgard negotiated a treaty with seven of these races. In accordance with these treaties the Asgard limited their extra-dimensional enterprises to a tight band of dimensions for a period of twenty five hundred years. In addition to this, the Asgard agreed to recover the probes, close the holes they left behind and do what they could to limit damages. All but one probe was recovered," lectured Carter. "Before I answer any of your questions I would like to turn the briefing over to the Thor AI," Carter finished.

The hologram of the deceased Asgard appeared and began, "By this time a few of you have realized the unintended cost of our legacy. Believe me when I say this was not believed to be a pressing concern for us in a long time. We for the most part forgot about the probe. It was a bit of a cultural embarrassment for us. I fear however it is a problem that will come home to roust if not handled aggressively. I have released encrypted data that we have been withholding even from ourselves so you may close the rips in the Multiverse. The probe in question was exploring multiple universes in a quest to find a solution for the problem of corporeal immortality, it was programmed to explore and catalog a section of each dimension it traveled through. In the event it found something capable of meeting it's AIs criteria it left behind it a network of nano-probes. These nano-probes were capable of opening up a chain of dimensional gate ways that would allow the probe to communicate and permit an expedition to follow. Unfortunately Loki programmed the gates to only close from the opposite side to force our hand in sending an expedition. To compound the problem the gates are unstable and if not closed in a timely manor get larger and larger until they become so large they grow beyond the nano-probes ability to close. Any Questions" The Thor AI concluded.

"What will happen if we fail to close the gates," asked Major General Hank Landry.

"They will get bigger ad bigger in time devouring hole galaxies and causing a collapse of space time in two universes," calmly answered the AI.

"What dimensions were effected?" asked Major Ramon Vargas of SG15.

"I have analyzed the data from the Joint mission of SG15, SG31, and SG 45 and cannot correlate their inter-dimensional coordinate system with our own, other than to say they had encountered extra-dimensional travelers more sophisticated than my race," the Thor AI stated.

The meeting continued for several hours by the end of that time the SGC had a workable plan. Three very special shuttle craft were readied these craft would travel the path of gates to it's end point the probes had an as yet untried device that the Asgard data said should get them home plus a transmission that would allow them to close the gate from the other side. All three craft were recent productions being pressed into service as they came out of assembly. They were dubbed the Nina, the Pinta. And the Santa Maria though all the ships were the same size. The Nina would carry SG15 led by Major Ramon Vargas USMC. The Pinta would carry SG31 led by Major Pamela Russo US Army. The flagship would be the Santa Maria carrying SG1 led Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell who would also command the mission.

Lieutenant. Commander William Kidd and SG45 would pursue an alternate lead for help


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence as part of this work I am including all reference in both works in this disclaimer.

I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda, Another Fine Myth, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Babylon 5, Back To The Future, Battlestar Galactica, Bolo(Book Series), Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Captain Ron, Charmed, Catch 22, Dark Angel, Diagnosis Murder, Doctor Who, Due South, Early Edition, Farscape, Firefly, Forever knight, Friday the 13th: The Series, Hammers Slammers (Book Series), Highlander, Indiana Jones, Knight Rider, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Lord of the Rings, Love and Curses, MacGyver, Malcolm In The Middle, Martial Law, McHale's Navy, Mech Warrior (Game), Men In Black, Murder she wrote, Nash Bridges, Night Stalker, One Thousand and One Nights,Operation Petticoat, Painkiller Jane, Pirates of the Caribbean, Quantum Leap, Quincy, Relic Hunter, Serenity, Seven Days, Sliders, Space Above and Beyond, Special Unit 2, Star Gate SG1, Star Trek, Star wars, Terminator, The Black Company (book Series), The Dresden Files, The Final Countdown, The Incredible Hulk, The Love Boat, The Odyssey, The Pretender, The Princess Bride, The Sentinel, The Wackiest Ship In The Army, The Wizard of Oz, Time Bandits. Time Tunnel, Transformers, Twenty thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Viper, Walker: Texas Range, X-Files, Whose products I have enjoyed in the past and recommend to the reader and make no claims on.

A Voyage of Convergence

Chapter Two Storms

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high

And don't be afraid of the dark.

At the end of the storm there's a golden sky

And the sweet, silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain,

Though your dreams be tossed and blown.

Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart,

And you'll never walk alone.

You'll never walk alone. "You'll Never Walk Alone"

Richard Rodgers and

Oscar Hammerstein II

O o o o o o o o o o-

"No need to worry, be happy, we have much time, and I am quite handy as the midwife. You will not find one with more experience. We must go but first we must find you a ship," said Calypso.

"And where might we be going," Asked Elizabeth?

"To the fountain of youth of course," said the Sea Goddess.

On the Horizon a storm starts Calypso stares into the storm and with a shiver says "that is most strange, it is not mine, that storm be of another world.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide

The Odyssey

By Homer

Four days later after a days stop to gather provisions at the first fingers of dawn Krytolandros the youngest son of Telemachus and Nausicaa, went down to the sea shore with his men they drew his ship into the water and got her mast and sails into her; they also put, the sheep on board and took their places. The Gods sent them a fair wind that blew dead aft and stayed steadily with them keeping our sails all the time well filled; so they did whatever wanted doing to the ship's gear and let her go as the wind and helmsman headed her. All day long her sails were full as she held her course over the sea, but when the sun went down and darkness was over all the earth, they got into the deep waters. From behind them, it came as if deep below the waters, behind them came a current that pulled them backward faster than the wind, behind them formed a vortex, not oar or sail would keep them from its awesome pull. Just when they thought that Poseidon would pull them to their doom golden light did breach the surface, a window to another stormy sea many feet below, the sea fell through window to the stormy sea below. And so did fall Krytolandros along with ship and crew. Fight they did to turn their ship around. A fight they won to keep the prow proud and facing forward. A battle won to stay afloat as the sea dropped by the height of three men tall. A war they won that night turned day, though blinded by the storm. And to the victor went the spoils to live another day.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"Once as I told in glee

Tales of the stormy sea,

Soft eyes did gaze on me,

Burning yet tender;

And as the white stars shine

On the dark Norway pine,

On that dark heart of mine

Fell their soft splendor. The Skeleton in Armor

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

For fives days did the bold explorers made passage to the south. For five nights did they make camp on nooks they found between rocky shores. The Norsemen embolden by good fishing and good weather continued on their way. Days turned into weeks the mouths of great rivers did they cross. The sun grew stronger they rigged extra sail cloth to provide shade. They hunted and fished and even found a few natives to trade with. Till one day a storm appeared without warning between them and land.. It was a blinding storm that seemed to rise up from the sea. And when they were at last free of the storm there navigator declared to Halldór they were right and truly lost. For two days west they sailed till to their south they spotted a sail. They moved toward the ship she was broad, and round with a single square rigged sail and a row of oars along her sides. They approached and hailed her. The darker men on the other ship did not know what to make of the Dragon bowed ship that approached them, nor could they understand the strange language of it's pale and hairy crew. They tried to maneuver away from the strangers. With parley failing the crew eyed the ship and Halldór conferred with shaman and helmsman and then asked "shall we take her?" "Ja!" The crew did yell. They quickly closed upon her making better use of wind. They sailed past and downwind of their target and switched from sail to oar. The ships fought exchanging missiles as they closed. The rounded was heavy with cargo and not heavily crewed surprised by the Viking boarding action bronze spears and swords were no match for Viking steel. That night they feasted on mutton wine, dates and grain. A day later they found an island in the wine dark sea.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

The Eight Voyage of Sinbad cont….

They sailed with a fair wind stopping at ports along the coast the charts they had allowed them to trade their way south along the coast. The old mans contacts at these ports allowed them to trade smartly finding cargos that were needed farther south. At first they exchanged commodities with great profit, but the greater their progress to the south the vaguer were the charts and the less trustworthy the contacts. Their last known port was Sofaia where they sold their cargo for gold, diamonds and provisions. The ship was light but well provisioned as they left the port. They stopped along wild shores as their southward root turned west. It was only then that Allah ceased to smile on their little venture. At first it was a strange fog that lost them site of land but soon the fog gave way to storm but light in the water the ship held together the boards creaked the men retched until they were free of the storm. It was not until the afternoon of the next day, they were free of storm and fog. They waited on the navigator and took a northwest heading. They gave thanks to Allah who in his mercy delivered them from the storm. As the sun sank into the west they spotted shore, but as the stars rose all hand began to pray for the sky made no sense to any sailor and left the navigator vexed. For any sailor worth his salt who sailed the southern waters knew As-Ssaleeb Al-Janobi as friend. And to see Ad-Dubb Al-A'sghar so high on the horizon made no sense to them at all. The navigator worked his craft his language was most colorful as they anchored off the unknown coast. That night he said to Sinbad, while hurling insults at his charts, I think we are north of Baghdad but do not ask me east or west for all my charts can tell me, we are somewhere in the Alps.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Loudly the bell in the old tower rings,

Bidding us list to the warning it brings:

Sailor, take care! Sailor, take care!

Danger is near thee, beware! Beware!

Beware! Beware!

: Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep,

So beware! beware!

Asleep In The Deep

Arthur J. Lamb

The scourge The Dread Pirate Roberts plotted his course with care. Over the past weeks three ships were overtaken by them all fearing the wrath of the Dread Pirate surrendered tribute without a fight. The ship stopped at a free port and the merry crew took liberty. The Avenger took to see again to take prizes in the west. Over a week from land a storm came upon them briefly. A hot wind blew with fog and currents turning the sea and air into a salty stew. The crew had confidence in their brave Captain, a god in form of man, for though he had sailed for twenty-two years he still looked like thirty-one. With the captain and the first mate they made it through the storm. And on the muster the morning after they had only lost one hand. Well actually it was a hook, a fine well crafted one, plated in noble metals to prevent corrosion, that belonged to a crewman, who had his left hand amputated many years ago.

So as the ships carpenter set about repairs and an attempt at prosthetics the Captain and the first mate attempted to ascertain their position. The night sky held a horror the stars they were all wrong. What curse was this for no seaman there had seen these stars before.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

War is a matter of expedients

Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke

The East India Company was recovering from the loss of it's flag ship. It was now nation states trying to take back the seas. It was not a great time for pirates and so the fleet of Admiral Jack Sparrow moved with the greatest care. They ran from masts upon the horizon and often sailed at night. One dawn as they slipped into a hidden cove, they found they were not alone. The cove they chose was the home of merchant whose mast was taken by a storm. The ship and crew surrendered she carried rum and oranges. The pirates and the merchant captain came up with a bold plan. They helped remast the merchantman whose crew was very small. With rum and fruit they made such merry mischief and created insurance fraud. The pirates left on evening tide. The merchantman did linger for a fortnight than staggered into port insured by Lloyds of London they complained of cargo lost. In the bars the merchant's men were telling of a pirate fleet that left to south and east. Telling of fleet of half a score of ships led by the ghost ship the dreaded Black Pearl. The tale grew taller with retelling. However no tale was so tall as the one told by the ledger from the merchant captain's hold.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.

Edwin Powell Hubble

The Nature of Science, 1954

Aboard the Nautilus there was much excitement the captain had found an electromagnetic event of extraordinary magnitude. As they approached it, the ships compass pointed anyway but north. The submarine charted the phenomena captain and crew taking water samples and instrument readings as they approached. The first mate was the first to sound the alarm as the gyro movement sensor tilled in an unexpected direction. The Captain cried out in alarm, "it is pulling us toward it, full left rudder, engines to maximum. The mighty ship turned its tale to best fight the current. The flow meters said they were moving at nearly fifty km/h but the gyro movement sensor said they were moving backward. Suddenly the pressure gages went wild the depth readings went from 30 meters to 10. The ballast tanks went wild bringing the sub to the surface like a cork. The Nautilus darted away from this underwater maelstrom. As the crew gained their feet duties were taken up again. Through the hull could be heard a grate roar the Captain opened the hatch and looked behind them. A storm was forming. For the safety of his crew Nemo moved the ship away. They stayed submerged till night fall which was two hours late. The stars that night were strangers a true challenge for the Captain.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Captain William Krane singled the engine room for half power as he headed the Mystic Lady out to sea avoiding the gulf stream currents he headed south for Cuba with his first mate three dozen crew and eight passengers. Captain Krane was Master and owner of the ship well him and the bank anyway. His First Mate, Jim Dorothy, had been with him since the war. Unlike Krane, Dorothy still had a wife and child. Bill Gresham was the Chief Engineer the oldest member of the crew he came with the ship. Will Nye was the ship's wizard Purser/Radio Officer/Clerk and sometimes Surgeon. Dan Gray was 1st Engineer a genius with machinery when he was sober. Of the rest of the crew well you could find them in most port, solid seamen that you could trust. Trust as long as you knew them well enough to know what to trust them with.

The passengers were another story:

There was Mr. and Mrs. Tomas Smith (well give the guy a little credit on originality at least it wasn't John) their passports were works of art. A businessman and his wife and his exact business is none of your business. Next were the Robinsons (Doris and Sam) a young couple, newlyweds, trying to make their honeymoon an adventure, They also carried Mr. Green a small man who hardly ever left his cabin. Quite a contrast to Gloria Kline, who had a body that drew the crew like a magnet, and a way about her that told them that she was more then they could ever hope to handle. Rounding out the merry band were Hans Grubber and Walter Midland two entrepreneurs that had much to do with the ships most resent cargos.

It was a quite trip with Nye trying to keep the passengers amused and out of the way of the rest of the crew. The ship was 150 miles from Bermuda when the ship hit heavy fog and a bit of rough weather, near three AM the compass spun like a top and the ships radio started wailing like a banshee.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Don't tell me not to live,

Just sit and putter,

Life's candy and the sun's

A ball of butter.

Don't bring around a cloud

To rain on my parade. Don't Rain on My Parade

Bobby Darin -

On a moonless night, the USS Kiwi lay anchored awaiting it's secret rendezvous it's crew keep watch the darkness. They spotted a ripple In the water two crewmen lighted cigarettes. A submarine surfaced and pulled alongside the two ships began a mostly one-sided exchange the operation proceeded with greater confidence as a fog rolled in. By the time the ships had finished a steady rain was falling. The two ships finished up their business with the weather getting rough.

With a storm behind them and a fog bank ahead the PT 73 slowed. Earlier that night they recovered the downed Aviator now they were on the homeward leg of the mission. Unfortunately the weather failed to cooperate. The 73 had run from one freak storm into another, the lightning and the fact that the compass had taken leave of it senses did not make things any better. Now the mission was the weather that and the fact that with visibility and the compass problem Cmdr. McHale was not very confident as to their exact position.

Aboard the USS. Sea Tiger Captain Matt Sherman truing to decide how best to ride out the storm when his sonar man tells him he has contact a diesel engine moving in their direction he orders a dive.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Most bride grooms were nervous Ian Matheson wasn't. He was too busy being seasick. Sure he was about to marry a werewolf, had Slayers as brides maids and had a Bolo playing father of the bride by a remote robot avitar, but it was the weather that was getting him as the ship moved to and through.

"Now Ian listen to me, and I will show you the way, to calm your stomach, using a combination of meditation and herbs," Kui Chang Caine interrupted in far too calm a voice.

On the bridge Captain Stubing had a crisis of his own a storm had turned up suddenly. A storm that for the first ten minutes of their entering it the weather services refused to believe existed. Stranger still a rather strong current was pulling them toward the storm.

Phoebe Halliwell was disturbed by something other than seasickness. She had a vision. The ship was headed for something not of this world

The weather only got rougher lightning struck the ship circuits blinked all over the ship as the ship entered the maelstrom

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

The crew of the Kiwi did what they needed to do to handle the storm the winds and current pulled the tiny ship was tossed about like a bean bag. The ship was more trying to survive, then to actually navigate, but through it all Lieutenant Riddle kept them afloat and soon they were back in fog again.

On PT 73 by prayer and maneuver made it through the storm. Out of the fog they saw a periscope as the tired crew went to battle stations the sub surfaced. Fortunately the sub was friendly.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

The Pacific Princess Lurched forward as it lights blinked on an off, Stubing held the ship steady. Being far enough from land he did not try fight the strange current instead he increased speed in the direction of the current. This provided a smother ride. GPS showed no single, the compass still was doing back flips, the radios seemed dead. Just as things were starting to calm down it started up again. Two full hours later it settled down again. The Pacific Princess sailed on through the fog the compass now found north but GPS and radio seemed dead.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

The Kiwi saw a beacon glowing through the fog.

The sub and the PT boat were shocked at the tremendous glow.

The madman on the cruise ship slowed his speed and hailed them not caring if they were friend or foe.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"Prepare to tack!" Cried Captain Ron after three hours under his tutelage the boys were starting to show some amount of competence (well they new when to duck). The need to beat a course upwind was defiantly a great teaching aid but it was a welcome relief when the wind changed. Running with the wind was more in keeping with the Wilkerson sprite.

As the sun set Sue decided to have some fun at the boy's expense and began telling Bermuda Triangle stories. About the time Dewey, and Reese were scanning the horizon for dancing lights.

Malcolm put a bit of a damper on her fun by telling about the inaccuracies and inconsistencies and quoting detailed facts and figures. Then Malcolm started telling a few tales of his own about Methane clathrate deposits, pirates, and drug smugglers who stole pleasure boats for smuggling.

At this point Captain Ron had Hal take the helm. He talked about pirates and gorillas.

"Is that why you keep those guns below?" asked Pam.

Before he could answer Hal asked, "Is the compass supposed to do that?"

The wind picked up with a vengeance and a current formed in the sea. The Captain had them strike the sail. He took the helm and started the engines. As storm arouse from nowhere. The crew secured the boom. Strange gold lights surrounded them. In an instance they passed from day to night.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

It was a beautiful spring evening. The Nimitz and the Richard were practicing a close maneuvers for the fleet week show. There was nothing on the radar the sea was nearly glass. There was nothing there one instant then a sudden gust of wind. Electronic noise a plenty and a current moving forward at nearly sixty knouts. Before them glowed a golden arch of fairy fire it pulled the ships into it like a giant mouth. It left a storm behind them and lifted into the sky. As quickly as it hit it was gone. Hardened navigation systems blinded for a minute quickly came on line. What they told was beyond belief they had moved South by twelve degrees of latitude and move to the west by five. The Blake ordered communication silence and had his men just listen by tight beam communications the Bonhomme Richard also complied. From all incoming was telling them their clocks were eleven months fast. Captain Harry Blake asked for more data and put his alert status to red. He then went to his cabin and pulled a book from his safe. It was the twenty year old legacy of one of his a predecessor, the title read, "Space Time Anomaly SOP Captain Matthew Yelland 1981."

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

The thing about space is the space there is a lot of it. Once you get moving in the right direction most of what you do is coast. You keep life-support going and watch the sensors so you don't run into anything and nothing runs into you. For the most part you get to watch the sensors watch a whole lot of nothing. In the most empty part of the trip you can let alarms do that. It was during that part of the trip. The crew was having lunch in the galley. Cobb was working on his second bowl of Chili on lo mein. Simon and Kaylee were talking about the relative nutritional value of noodles vs. rice. Zoe and the Captain worried about how solid their buyer really was.

Inara Serra said "I hope the deal is solid or we are going to be eating a lot of noodles."

Captain Reynolds looked at Cobb happily munching away and said, "It is a good thing we only have a weeks more travel. We will still have a few more noodles to sell."

Cobb asked, "Hey! Why is everybody looking at me."

Kaylee returned, "cause you talk with your mouth full."

Everybody but Cobb and River laughed. Cobb glared and continued eating. River said, "Something different is coming."

Remember those alarms discussed earlier, well about that time they all decided to go off.

Captain Reynolds reached the bridge about ten steps behind River. The sensors were going crazy. Their momentum was such that they hit before they could figure just what it was. The Stars around them flickered and arranged themselves into totally new positions. However what really got their attention was the strange blue planet that suddenly appeared.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when you're sittin at the table.

Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done. Kenny Rogers

The Gambler

About an hour and a half into their patrol the Wild Cards stopped their first freighter. Dropship one docked and preformed the inspection. Nine ships and fourteen hours later they returned to the Saratoga. Twelve hours after that they were at it again. After five missions they received thirty hours down time. Followed by four hours back in their simulators training. After a generous fourteen hours, more down time, they started the same process over again. By the end of the month they had recovered one miner lost doing an EVA, settled a claim dispute, caught one AI infiltrator, and impounded a cargo of unsafe espresso pots. And the patrols continued.

"King, this is Trump, have contact on my three o'clock" radioed 2lt Rodney Smith.

"All units this is King, sensor lead monitor Trump," ordered Captain West" The formation reoriented as the point craft made it's turn.

"King, this is Trump, I have transponder and visual ID as an Aero-Tech 211 jump freighter, transponder ID unknown." Said Smith as he closed.

"King, this is Holdcard, be advised that is a design that the AIs have made extensive copies of," supplied LT Goldstein.

"King, this is Trump, I am initiating communication, reported Smith.

"King, this is Trump, She is responding to challenge, they have told us the following to prevent surprises; She is armed but is standing down on all weapons, cargo contains fuel and contraband, and the ship has no legal registry, reported Smith.

Holdcard this is King, Commence boarding operations-- be careful, All units protocol November Alpha Three.

As the squadron reconfigured for a trap or suicide ship it was now all up to Goldstein and his men. West and the others could only watch and wait.

Finally Goldstein proclaimed, "King, this is Holdcard, I have two human females in custody, Claim to have won ship from AI's in card game. Have administered type 17 test, organic is positive, verification eggplant.

"King, this is Poker Face, I am picking up some really weird readings up ahead," reported Lt. William French.

Shortly after that a band of pale gold lights rotated into four kilometer wide oval swallowing the freighter and the entire squadron.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

After three jumps and two days subjective Lando had still not gotten around to "the talk". It was not like they hadn't talked they talked about, space craft, sabacc, Hutt sexual practices, the war, and droid manufacture, but they had not gotten around to the topics Luke asked him to talk about. They were talking about the Yuuzhan Vong again when he finally found the proper opening. They were between jumps still on the wrong side of a gravity well, in empty space, when they were suddenly distracted. Ben Skywalker had a sudden look like someone hit him in the face with a cargo hatch, he then began to vomit. Lando barely heard Ben over the angry Astromech droid and the sparking control panel as Ben said, "The Force, something is tearing the Force." The ship shook and then the stars rearranged into a total different seen. As his copilot passed out Lando maneuvered to avoid and asteroid that had appeared out of nowhere.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

The Forlorn Hope used to be a smuggler, Until a month ago it had been the crowded home of sixty refuges. When a near empty Star Liner joined the fleet from deep hiding the old smuggler was relieved of its refuges and refitted as a recovery ship for extended operations. Her Captain Persephone and her husband Hades stayed with the ship the current mission of the two skilled smugglers was to round up one of Adama's raiding parties and smuggle it back to Galactica. They entered the system ready to jump at a moments notice their sensors searching for any signs of any hostels or friendlies. At first nothing appeared on sensors but a strange band of interference. Finely a faint signal came out of a nearby asteroid field. The Smuggler returned the countersign. Four small craft emerged from the asteroids.

"Forlorn Hope this is Apollo we are coming in for pickup," said the commander of the raid.

"Ready and waiting," said Captain Persephone.

Three vipers and a shuttle came into view. Carefully first the shuttle then the fighters landed in the ships cargo hold. This was the most dangerous time the Hope could not jump and as each Viper landed their ability to fight diminished. The sensor interference grew stronger. The last Viper was loading when the strange energy band became visible. Before the craft could be secured for maneuver it was upon them as Hades and the other crews secured Apollo's Viper it hit. In the hold the lights flickered and the ship made a slight jerk. On the bridge of the Forlorn Hope alarms were sounding sensors were shutting down to protect against overload and the stars had changed drastically.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

The itinerary called for an appearance on Mars and then an extend group of visits in the Rigel system. The trip to Mars was a leisurely one Mudd arrived in plenty of time for the talk show interview. Talking a pleasant mix of libertarianism, hedonism, connoisseur ship, and raktajino the "reformed" conman encouraged the audience to enjoy life. His Public relations manager borrowed heavily from the ancient writing of David Zeplowitz one of earth's great past masters of this philosophy. After his interview Harry beamed aboard the Bounty. They headed out of system at a rather moderate pace. Things were moving along quite as expected when his engineer spotted something strange on the sensors. Lai Kay immediately told her Captain, "We have a sensor anomaly of some sort up ahead".

"What is it?" asked Mudd.

"I can not at this time classify the phenomena, I can only say at this time, the sensors seem to be working properly, but the readings coming from the area of space ahead form no pattern I or the computer data base find familiar," said the Vulcan.

"Mr Dannic take closer look, this might be something interesting?" Ordered Mudd.

"We have a schedule to maintain," Aronad Harf the Public Relations Manager objected.

"We have a week to get to our next stop, this baby could be there in fourteen hours," the Captain said in an annoyed tone of voice.

Dannic, a long time veteran of the Orion Salvage fleet readied the ship for a sensor run.

Tul Ghobe' the Klingon security officer raised shields.

As they approached the disturbance their warp bubble collapsed. They tried to maneuver out of the way on impulse but were quickly swallowed by the phenomena.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"This is totally wrong," said Trance as the Andromeda bounced out of normal space into an unfamiliar star system.

Dylan turned to trance and asked, "What the hell just happened."

A very angry Trance Gemini said, "Someone is poking unstable holes in the Multiverse, and we just fell in one."

"We made an instantaneous transition from where we exited slipstream to an as yet undetermined location," Andromeda reported.

"That does not sound good'" quickly assessed Harper.

Rhade did his best to look unflappable.

Simply noted, "Here we go again."

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"Crichton" Called Pilot.

"Yes Pilot," Responded John Crichton.

"Remember that instruction about notifying you of wormholes and other strange phenomena," reminded Pilot.

"Yes but I think everybody in this quadrant has had enough of worm holes for a while, said Crichton.

"So have Moya and I" said Pilot.

"So why did you bring it up," asked Crichton.

"There is a very strange non wormhole phenomena up ahead I would like you to take a look at it," Said Pilot.

"Sure I am heading to the bridge," said Crichton.

A few minutes later Crichton arrived on the bridge Chiana is there watching a strange golden glow in the distance. Aeryn arrives shortly after Crichton carrying the baby. Crichton checks several different instrument displays. You are right Pilot it is nothing like a wormhole. It is more like a three dimensional object, viewable in only one direction.

John studies the thing for a bit and says, "Pilot try to get us farther away," said John.

"I have been trying to it is following us," said a worried sounding Pilot.

"I think it likes us," said Chiana.

"This thing is a rip in the very fabric of reality. And I do not care if it followed you home you can't keep it Pilot, get us out of here!" said Crichton.

Prepare for starburst in fifty seconds," said Pilot.

It caught up to them before starburst, Moya confused then aborted the starburst

"That was not starburst" reported Pilot.

"Pilot, does Moya know where we are?" asked Chiana.

"Yes, of course. We're someplace else. I'll…. get back to you on the specifics." Said Pilot

"Toto we are not in Kansas any more," was John's assessment.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

No sooner than Delenn's delegation arrived on Vreetran the Vree representative greeted them hurriedly, "You are just in time the meeting will begin shortly"

They were ushered into a large auditorium were eighty excited looking Vree were assembled.

In the center of the round auditorium fourteen distinguished looking Vree were assembled around a round table.

"Having the necessary quorum assembled we begin this meeting of the Conglomerate High Counsel," the fourteen chanted.

After several honorifics the meeting got down to business. Listening to the meeting Lyta and her delegation and many of the Vree in attendance were into one piece of shocking news after another. The shocking revelations were:

 The Vree were originally from another dimension,

 The Vree had lost or abandoned much of the technology they had when they first settled on Vreetan.

 An ancient probe had reopened rips between dimensions to send communications,

 The probe had moved onto another universe,

 The rips would grow if not closed,

 The communications reported that the probe found a method for corporeal immortality,

 The rips could only be closed from the other side,

 The Vree no longer had the knowledge on how to close the probe ,

 The Vree had one of the original colonists in suspended animation,

 The Ventuki Conglomerate High Counsel had voted to revive the sleeper.

 Delenn's delegation were invited because the Vree wished to be open an honest about a problem that could destroy the galaxy, and they were scared shitless and wanted all the help they could get.

As the ISA delegation discussed the information and amongst themselves and various Vree the medical guild began the process of reviving the sleeper. It would be two days later that the sleeper was ready to meet the world.

His name was Jul he had been the leader of the small community of Asgard had settled in this dimension ages ago. He had volunteered for cryogenic preservation. It was as a precaution against the inevitable loss of knowledge that the community's small size and back to nature philosophy initialed. His mission was to supply the lost knowledge should the colony run into a problem it could not handled. Only the High Counsel and a secret order of monks knew of his existence. And in all the centuries that he slept his services had never been needed. The problem they presented him upon awaking was not what he had anticipated. However it was one he could quickly formulate a plan for.

It had been only five days since the Jul had awakened the preparations and planning had been hectic.. Now three ships stood ready for one vital mission: Track down and recover the probe, for only the codes contained on the probe could permanently shut down the reality rips. And so it came to pass that two Vree ships and a Whitestar set off to save several universes.

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

The Nina, the Pinta. And the Santa Maria exited hyperspace and waited. Aboard the Santa Maria Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell asked, "Why are we just waiting here."

"The gate will come to us Cam the gatekeeper nanites are semi intelligent and as long as the gate remains a under a certain size the nanites can move the gate around," explained Colonel Carter.

"How do they find us? And how do they know who to look for?" asked Mitchell.

"They are sort of telepathic and they are not looking for us just a ship of explores it is kind of vague in the documentation," stated Jackson.

"Why am I suddenly getting a really bad felling about this," Mitchell said.

"Here it comes" said Teal'c

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Lieutenant. Connie Murphy was getting used to having some strange things dumped in her lap. So having a six and a half foot tall naval officer that built like football player was not quite that strange. The fact that he had come to her specifically to ask about one Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden immediately bumped things up to strange.

"Lieutenant. Murphy I am Lieutenant. Commander William Kidd I am with the NSA can we talk somewhere privately?" said Kidd.

Her Captain volunteered his office. After they entered the two marines with Kidd guarded the outside of the door.

Once they had some privacy the naval officer began, "The Chicago police have a consulting contact with Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden?"

"Yes, he has been helpful in resolving quite a few difficult cases," said Murphy defensively.

"You have been the primary police contact with Dresden on those cases Lieutenant. Murphy?" asked Kidd.

"Yes, I have" answered Murphy.

Good, we have need of Mr. Dresden's services and we would rather run funds through the Chicago Police Department then the only Wizard in the local yellow pages. Will you be our go between?

Murphy had a number of questions, only after she agreed to be a part of this endeavor and sighed several statements of confidentiality did Kidd answer any of them. A short time latter they were off to see the wizard.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three Gatherings**

Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence as part of this work I am including all reference in both works in this disclaimer.

I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda,  
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A Voyage of Convergence 

Chapter Three Gatherings

O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

And so it came to pass that Krytolandros son of Telemachus, pulled his ship out of the storm, and into sight of land. For upon the sea a lovely island sat, with milk white sand and a crown of green, it beckoned to the sailors weary from the storm. And so it was they came to land and pulled their boat ashore. They stopped to pray and sacrifice all now secured on land. So soon they fell asleep too tired now to stand.

The hero's bold awoke to the sound of a woman as furious as the storm. "Who be the Captain of this pile of sticks," the dark lady screamed .

"It is my ship, "I am the Captain," said Krytolandros.

"What know you of that foul storm that shreds the sea away and slits the air. What know you of that fowl wind that blew you here, you man who smells of other worlds," said Calypso.

"Lady, I know not what gods I have offended," tell me so that I might make recompense," pleaded Krytolandros.

"Who are You," asked the dark lady's companion a woman tall and fair .

"I am Krytolandros son of Telemachus," said the Greek.

"A cousin of mine who shared my name, had a lover once, he left her island to see his wife and oldest son. The son was Telemachus son of Odysseus," said Calypso.

"My Grandfather," offered Krytolandros.

"That was a score or more of centuries past as mortals measure time," said Calypso to the boy.

"Wait are you saying that this is the grandson of Odysseus from Homers books?" Asked Elizabeth.

"The ship be right, their dress, their language, and they smell of other world or time," said Calypso sizing up the Greeks.

"Do tell us oh Goddess have we spent eons in that storm," prayed a member of the crew.

For a few minutes Calypso only stared into the sea. "My hand maiden needs a ship, make ready yours, gather food, we sail at break of day," Calypo commanded.  
And so she spoke and merged into the sea. 

"Where did she go?' asked Krytolandros.

"She has been doing that a lot lately," said Elizabeth.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

The Tale of Halldór the Cold

The Norsemen woke the seagulls sheik ringing in their heads. A good nights feast rested none to gentle on the head. And so it was another day before they once again set sail. The lands down here were rich and warm, but they were lost and did know where hearth and home could be. They headed north and west finding more islands and a few fishing villages trading and getting information from the locals was difficult. Though the people were friendly language was a tremendous obstacle. Jörund the Smith was the one who found the key to trade for Iron work was rare to unknown in these sunny islands. Two fortnights passed trading and island hopping. They found an empty island that had some decent ore they then all voted weather to keep searching or setting up a forge. The sea was their decision to a man.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

The Eight Voyage of Sinbad cont….

Sinbad sailed south along the coast groping their way through uncharted waters. The natives were of no tribe of men that any recognized. The vegetation on the land was changing the waters getting warmer. Allah provided for them with good hunting and fishing and from the natives they learned what plants were good to eat. But it tests ones soul to not have hope of home. The weary travelers came gently through a fog one night and once more saw those gold and fairy lights they wondered at the sight. They knew what it would portend, but they prayed to Allah to set things right.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

Ballad of The Dread Pirate Roberts

They headed north for lack of a better direction that at least the sun and compass told them. The treacherous night sky returned each night, they made there on charts. Three days north they came upon another ship small but running low in the water. They spoke a spoke a strangely accented Arabic and were reluctant to be a prize. The ship paid heavily for their pride. Worse still they found the ship to be a slaver. The ships charts and records were the greatest prize. The ship was of an ancient type. The dhow was crewed by his men and the cargo until he found a place to set them free. They traveled north along the coast of Africa. They caught another slaver and set its cargo free. Their fleet of three sailed northward as they trained new crews. The next prize was a larger dhow that carried gold and Ivory. The Pirating was good but from what they gathered from captured charts and crews they seemed to have fallen into another world or time.

They had three more encounter as they pressed along. No merchant now would challenge a fleet this large and strong. They found a small fishing village with a decent harbor and made a port of call. Three of the new crewmen retired here and one member of the Avengers company took his share and stayed. But seeing the wealth of the strangers six young fisherman joined their ranks. They headed north again. Half a day out they were met by a storm. They did well to stay together in the growing wind, but one dhow was lost from site do to water and foul winds. Within the storm the winds did howl with such a mighty din. Within the night came that golden light. Much to their fright a cold wind blue and then the sea was still.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

And what of Admiral Jack sat staring at a chart, the map to what they sought, but the chart seemed strange and contradictory. The parts of the rout were inscribed twice. And why was a recipe and a poem inscribed into an island so small that it required a lens to read it. The conundrum must be resolved, but to be certain they spent precious time gathering the ingredients of the recipe. The items needed had to be gathered from specific sources. And so with care and stealth they gathered what seemed a witch's brew. Finding what they needed by trade, by loan or theft. They shopped at secret markets, gathered strange tropical herbs. They were the ghosts of the Bermudas. In their mad scavenger hunt they even snuck a small party into St. George's to see a silversmith. . Then they followed the map and route as shown. They knew it was absurdity to take a route so roundabout. But they traced the route religiously because they sought a magic shore. .  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you  
If youre young at heart  
For its hard, you will find, to be narrow of mind  
If youre young at heart G.Leigh, J. Richards

Starting with a simple question Nemo planed his missions. He needed to gather further data to substantiate his current theory. The ship sailed in a spiral watching and progressing. Within a week they spotted a sail. They watched the ship she surely was not a warship. With far to much question he threw caution to the wind. They hailed the ship, a merchantman, which treated them politely. Nemo was allowed to copy charts of the two nearest kingdoms Florin and Guilder he gave them gold and pearls in exchange for their gracious hospitality. The sailing ship was in many ways an anachronism with lines and maritime architecture as advanced any in the nineteenth century but without knowledge of gunpowder or steam. This plus the world maps he saw and photographed told him surly as did the stars he was not on the earth he knew. But why, did the fates taunt him so that of all the languages of man, did the Florins speak English.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

The Mystic Lady was 150 miles from Bermuda when the ship hit heavy fog and a bit of rough weather, near three AM the compass spun like a top and the ships radio started wailing like a banshee. Rain and fog and golden lightning and suddenly the night turned into a gray and foggy day, They cleared the fog by four AM but the sky lied and called it noon. The radio was silent. Captain Krane slowed his ship do to uncertainty of it's navigation. He ran many sun sightings. By night fall the passengers and crew all new something was the matter.

Miss Kline came up to the bridge to find the Krane, Dorothy, and Nye in a nest of charts and papers. "I don't want to be a bother boys, but what is Orion doing up their so high in a May sky?" She asked coyly.

"It is nice to know I have such lovely company in my delusions," said Krane.

"The best we can tell, if we disregard anything we knew before noon today is we are in the wrong month in the wrong ocean," said Nye.

"Yea, and in six months my coffee stayed warm," said Jim Dorothy dryly.

"I have posted extra watches and set a course west hopefully we will hit either Asia or Florida," said Krane.

"Why am I not very reassured," said Miss Kline .

"If you wanted that you could have taken a liner, here you get the truth, if we got any," said Krane.

Gloria Kline left the bridge, the three men watched her exit then went back to their charts.

It was nearly eighteen hours later Krane, Dorothy, and Nye had each gotten at least six hours sleep. When Dorthy spotted something. "Look! I have a sail on the horizon," Said the First Mate.

"Plot a course to intercept, lets hail them" ordered Krane.

As Nye order single flags were flown, and the Captain turned the ship and order three quarters speed. Questions burned and distance between the two ships seemed so reluctant to narrow. Odd a wooden steam Frigate US flagged. It seamed to be in far too good a condition for a relic of the Civil War. Eventually, and oh too slowly the two ships got close enough to talk. Mr. Nye and a crewman took the motor launch across to the other ship. The crew of the other ship seamed overly fascinated by the motor launch. Aboard the Abraham Lincoln he learned some shocking things for he asked for date, time and position. Five November 1866, eighteen-thirty hours 31 15' N. lat. and 136 42' E. long. The launch and Mr. Nye returned with four men from the Lincoln. The two ships stayed together as the night rolled in.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

The compass had settled down, the GPS was dead, two small craft were trying to get his attention, radio bands were nearly empty, satellite TV dead. Captain Stubing hailed the PT boat it came along side and its commander climbed aboard.

Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale was a bit was doing his best to keep his temper in check as the Purser brought him to the Captain. McHale kept seeing the large bull's-eye on his back a he walked to the bridge on the beautiful milk white ship that was lit up brighter than Broadway. More annoyingly this overfriendly puppy dog kept trying to make pleasant conversation. Halfway to the bridge McHale asked, "has anyone aboard this happy little tub notice that there is a war going on?"

Gopher answered, "sure, but we are no where near the Persian Gulf."

"What about the Japs," asked McHale as they neared the bridge?

"Not many on this cruise, private party," answered the Purser.

They passed a rather confused communications offer as they entered the bridge. Gopher made the introductions

"Good evening commander, I am glad to see you, we seem to be having some navigational issues after that little storm" said Captain Stubing. 

McHale decided to start politely but to the point as he told the Captain of this floating loony bin, "please, kill all those dam lights before we are spotted all I will torpedo you myself." 

Stubing ordered the passengers to their cabins and killed the deck lights. Stubing with an equal sense of decorum then asked, "Would you mind telling we what the hell is going on?"

"This area is crawling with Japs," stated McHale.

Aboard the USS Kiwi Lieutenant Riddle notice something strange it was dark out he checked his watch 08:00 hours, he became checking every clock and watch aboard ship. By 08:11 (by consensus on his ship) he singled the PT 73 and the Sea Tiger. By 08:20 (by three ship consensus) they singled the Pacific Princess.

Back aboard the Pacific Princess McHale and Stubing were looking at each man certain the other was shy more than a few marbles.

"I am five hours out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and we have been at peace with Japan for over fifty years," expounded a frustrated Stubing.

They were interrupted by the Pacific Princess' lead communications officer Tom Rayford. "Sir, this may seem odd but what time do you have."

"5:15 AM and since when have you need me to read a clock" demanded Stubing.

"And what time do you have Commander," asked Rayford.

"08:25," said McHale.

"And it is still dark out," commented Rayford.

"Thank you Mr. Rayford, any luck with the GPS," said Stubing

"Unfortunately we are not getting anything in the higher bands and what I am getting in the lower bands is disturbing," said Rayford.

Rayford now had both McHale's and Stubing's attention.

"Five minutes ago I had communications with a Wireless telegrapher in New York his time was 3:35 AM May 18Th 1927.

An hour later the cloud cover let them see the night sky, a little less than one hour after that the sun rose.

They had enough data for navigation if the guy from New York was right they were 150 miles North of Bermuda.

The strange flotilla headed south.

Captain Stubing and his new security officer were having an interesting morning the passengers were generating a lot of questions. At first it was because of the loss of satellite news and internet access, then ship to shore communications, it was time to make an announcement. McBride was getting ready to handle the aftermath.

Buffy Summers was in a bad day twice last light, she was woken up by nightmares. Not your normal slayer nightmares really strange stuff like trying to turn on the TV and getting a message "Sorry your show has been canceled because TV has not been invented yet." Dawn was still sleeping as Buffy claimed the shower. A short time later she was drying off, Dawn was up, she had turned the TV, she just started flicking through a few music channels when the Captain's announcement came on: 

"Attention please early this morning we encountered an unusual phenomenon. You may have noticed that we currently are not providing several outside services such as CNN, internet access, cell phone, or ship to shore phone services. This is because as far as we can tell is that phenomenon, we encountered last night has somehow displaced us in time. Please stay tuned to this station for continued updates."

"I so hate alternate time lines, Dawn get dress we are so going to need a good breakfast," said Buffy.

Frank Parker had gotten McBride's attention it only required minor threats of bodily harm to the Pursier to get through.

"Ok Parker, I only have time for one crises at a time with out you starting one," said McBride.

"I thought Olga may be of some help she specializes in the psychology and physiology of time travel," said Parker.

J.B. Fletcher was having a wonderful cruse twelve hours had passed and she had not stumbled over a dead body.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

Captain Ron kept the ship steady as they were tossed about. Dewey was a lovely shade of green. Lois was to sick to yell. Piama for some reason was almost unaffected and was able to assist the Captain. Malcolm sought the midline of the ship and was almost feeling human. The ship had a radio room that was kind of neat and well placed so he monitored the radio trying to be useful. He however figured he was still a little delusional as he kept hearing, "Unidentified inter-dimensional craft please identify your self. You are in violation of reality protection treaty two-forty-two," Over the radio.

The rough weather quieted for a bit then started up again. An hour after that the night lit up with that same weird gold light. The weather did not get better for another hour. By sunrise they had a clear sky and a nice breeze and were under sail again. 

The winds were not treating Takashi Fujiyama and his Mitsubishi F1M2 well at all. He spent half an hour lost. Fortunately he found a familiar island and was now back on course. His mission was to look for an American spy ship that was rumored to be in the area. Luck was with him on his return path he spotted a sail. He made a pass to identify the craft. It was a strange looking craft. He made a lower pass for a better look and Kazunori Ito radioed in their position and description of the Craft.  
"Look a plane!" cried Dewey.

"It is a Japanese Zero float plane," said Hal who saw it last week on the history channel.

"Must be Confederate Air Force," said Malcolm.

"I don't like the way he is looking at us," said Lois.

"Here he comes again," said Dewey.

"I don't like the way he is looking at us either," said Captain Ron.

"That was a close pass," said Hal.

"He is turning around," said Malcolm.

"Pam, Open the weapons locker," ordered Ron.

"Already done," yelled Reese.

After a few seconds Ito told his pilot they were ordered to engage the target. Fujiyama brought the plane around for a strafing run.

"Get down and hang on", warned Captain Ron.

The Wilkersons let loose a barrage of expletives as the ship rapidly came about. The maneuver caused the Zero to miss its target. Reese also opened up with an M60 machine gun.

Fujiyama was getting ready for another pass when Ito called his attention to the rapidly changing fuel gage. Fujiyama broke off the attack and headed for base.

As the hostel aircraft departed the Adventure Galley found shelter in a bank of fog. As it sailed on the weather quickly degenerated (wait, we are talking about the Wilkerson family here). As the ship sailed on the weather quickly went to shit.   
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

After a quite two hours sailing the Nimitz and the Richard Blake and Evans began to pull in their air caps. Their aircraft had spotted the anomaly and were making way towards it and hopefully home with all deliberate speed. The two mighty ships had all their aircraft landed as they hit heavy seas. Setting course for the heart of the magnetic disturbance they found the strange golden lights quickly and passed through. Once again the hardened navigation systems blinded for a minute quickly came on line. But as quickly as their systems came on line they received a communications:  
"Unidentified inter-dimensional craft please identify your self. You are in violation of reality protection treaty two-forty-two."

When the Captain gave the word the communications officer replied "This is the USS Nimitz (CVN-68)." 

Identifications and confusion soon turned to explanations and negotiations. Thirty minutes later a black DeLorean landed on the flight deck of the Nimitz.

Dr. Laurel Weaver and Dr. Emmett Brown of the United Nations Task Force for Inter Species Cooperation (UNTFISC) introduced themselves. An hour later Blake and Evans had agreed to a set of new missions: Locate the source of the dimensional disturbances with the goal of shutting down the reality rifts, Rescuing the Pacific Princess, and find a way home. With Weaver and Brown still on board the two ships headed on to the next rift.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

Inara, Simon, Zoe, Kaylee and Cobb came to the bridge in about that order. Cobb finally broke the gaping silence with a simple question; "What the hell just happened?

Inara simply stated, "Cobb you have Chili on your chin."

"A better question is: Where the hell are we?" said Captain Reynolds.

"It is a pretty ball, just like in the old books, the before and once upon a time place," said River in a singsong voice.

"I do not know anything like this in Alliance Space, that huge moon is not even terraformed" said Zoe.

Kaylee said, "It sure is pretty but don't you think we better get in a stable orbit before we hit it.

Captain Reynolds and River had plenty of time to make the adjustments. While they did that Zoe checked the com.

"Hear anything," asked Cobb.

"I can make it out but I am having trouble with the accents, their sure is a lot of com traffic down their" said Zoe.

"River, honey you recognize this place?" asked a mystified Simon.

"It is just like Earth. Like Earth as it was five hundred years ago," whispered River.

"Dam she is right," said Zoe as she switched one of the larger monitors to CNN.

"Why is it the crazy one is always right," moaned Cobb .

"I am not sure I want to know," said Captain Reynolds  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

"All units this is King, report," ordered Captain West"

"King, this is Trump," Said Smith.

Captain West worried as one by one, they all reported in. His relief was sort lived.

"King this is Jack I think we have a problem, We have lost contact with the Saratoga and all known friendly bases, and we are missing an asteroid field." said Hawkes."

"King, this is Holdcard, I am confirming what Jack is saying, I am getting some strange chatter on the on the com, not on the normal frequencies," said Goldstein.

"Holdcard, this is King, does the crew of the freighter know anything," asked West.

"I have a lady on the freighter who claims she is Captain Shane Vansen, I am sending a visual, we have confirmed she is organic" said Goldstein.

West looked at the image on his screen with a mix of hope and disbelief.

"Holdcard, this is King, can we land a hammerhead any were on that tub?"

"King, this is Holdcard, bay two off the starboard is big empty and we are bringing down to zero pressure," relayed Goldstein.

"Jack this is King, land on freighter confirm alleged Queen of Hearts, All units this is King let's get to work on our little navigational problem." 

A short time latter in cargo bay two Hawkes waited while the cargo bay pressurized. Lance Corporal Rojas entered the bay as Hawkes exited his Hammerhead.

"Sir, I was sent to escort you to the prisoners" reported Rojas.

"Thank you Corporal Rojas lead on," Hawkes was still coming to turn with the addition of the enlisted tack squad that had been added to the unit. The fact that most of the enlisted men were tanks, and he was the ranking tank officer, added a new dimension to his role as Squadron XO. Hawkes was the first memorize all their names.

Hawkes was led to one of the ships cabins, In the cabin were three women. One of them was Corporal Aretha Fish who was guarding the two other women. Hawkes was prepared for traps, tricks, or other disappointments as he prepared to meet this sham Shane Vansen, What he was not prepared for was both Shane Vansen and Vanessa Damphousse. Still Hawkes instincts told him that all gift horses kicked and bit so he took quite a bit of convincing.

Outside of the freighter, West was having a few hard to believe things of his own. His people had been listening to system traffic and were putting together a picture. They were no longer in the same star system they had been in. This system had what they believed to be humans living here in great numbers. And the interference that preceded the event that brought them, here was starting up again and growing stronger.

"King, this is Trump, if that thing comes back do you think it might take us home." Said Smith

"All units this is King, lets find out, " ordered Captain West.

This time the Marines met the rift head on.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

YT1300 was interfaced to the ships instruments, the astromech droid was spending an inordinate amount of time trying to ascertain their location. Long enough for Ben Skywalker to somewhat recover. Long enough to clean up the bridge "Ben, Ben are you all right," asked Lando.

"I feel so, so empty, so wrong," whispered Ben.

"You threw up everything in your stomach," said Lando.

"Not me the universe, just a little beyond the ship, then nothing." Said Ben. His voice was only slightly stronger then his pervious whisper.

At this time a very aggravated astromech droid chimed in with a set of toots and whistles.

"What do you mean wrong galaxy," asked Lando .

The droid gave another series of toots and whistles.

"Wrong universe," said the young Jedi in a despondent tone.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

. Captain Persephone of the Forlorn Hope quickly assessed and reduced the causes for all the alarms. The ship had been exposed to a large and sudden amount of electro magnetic interference. Communications and navigation systems went off line to protect themselves. The systems slowing went back on line at least the communications systems. The navigation systems came online only to show error messages.

Hades returned to the bridge along with a colonial warrior. Hades introduced his wife and Apollo and asked for an explanation.

"I was sitting up here waiting for you to secure the cargo pay when these strange gold lights came out of nowhere and encircled us. The instruments went wild and here we are," explained Captain Persephone making a broad gesture to the seen outside her cockpit window.

Hades looked at the seen out the window, and then at the navigation board, and finally at his wife. "Are you saying we are lost," asked Hades. 

"Yes, and com shows nothing within parsecs, so we can not ask for directions, but on the bright side I believe we gave the Cylons the slip," Said Persephone.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

The Warp bubble restored itself almost as quickly as it dissipated once they cleared the anomaly.

"Engines are operating at optimum," reported Lai Kay.

"Computer records indicate we have moved more then One-hundred-eighty parsecs and we are showing some as yet undefined temporal anomalies," stated Dannic.

"I am not getting anything on subspace," added Aronad Harf

"I have eight small armed possibility hostile craft on an intercept course," reported Tul Ghobe'.

"Take evasive action," ordered Mudd. 

The bird of prey easily evaded the sub light craft.

"Sir, I am picking up another anomaly," said Lai Kay.

"(Explicative deleted [did we mention that Harry Mudd was resistant to rehabilitation), let's try to avoid it this time," said Harry.

"Arrrg," was his navigators comment when the anomaly caught them.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

"Change heading twenty-two degrees, two minutes, forty-three seconds, pitch by ten degrees yaw," said Trance Gemini.

"But that puts us right on course for another anomaly, and I have not had time to calculate my location yet," complained the Andromeda.

"Do as she says," commanded Dylan.

"Trance, do you know what you are doing," asked Beka.

"Of course, but it will be a while before we know why." answered Trance.

"What is that thing we just went through," asked Harper .

"Only a gapping hole between universes that may eventually swallow everything." answered Trance.

"Everything, that does tend to weigh heavily in our priorities," said Rhade.

Once more the golden lights enveloped the Andromeda Ascendant.

"Moya is scared, she says we are no longer in the same galaxy," said Pilot.

"Pilot can Moya find that thing again it may be the only way home," asked Crichton?

"That is what is scaring Moya the one brought us here is getting away and another one is heading toward us.

"I think someone or something is trying to take us somewhere. I do not know why or where," said Aeryn.

"And we won't know until we get there," added Chiana.

"Pilot it seams like our only option is to follow the yellow brick road," said Crichton.

"It is more of a gold color," Pilot replied as Moya passed through the Anomaly.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

Two Vree ships and a Whitestar entered another universe. Jul, Delenn, and Harg (the commander of the second Vree ship were having an impromptu teleconference.

"It is a simple plan, we sit here gather as much sensor data as possible and wait for the next rift to find us," restated Jul as they waited.  
"I am familiar with that part of the plan, what I am most worried about is the two objectives," Said Delenn.

"You are referring to the part were the probe gives us its information to close down the gates and return home," stated Harg.

"Yes, that is the area that concerns me," confirmed Delenn.

"That is the reason we are spending time gathering the data," explained Jul.

"Jul you were around in the time of the lost technology," asked Delenn?

"Yes, but I am a geneticist," said Jul.

As the three ships waited for the next rift Delenn had come to the conclusion that the Vree sense of optimism and adventure was not contagious between species.

As the rift claimed the three ships she sealed herself for the mission. The responsibility was awesome a universe was at stake failure was not an option. The Vree despite their very materialistic bend of mine had put this mission together with something she could understand, an act of faith.

The Nina, the Pinta. And the Santa Maria did not have long to wait. The interference started and grew stronger. Finally the large irregular golden aperture appeared and swallowed the three ships. Once through the Gap the ships sent out the single they hoped would heal the wound. The aperture stopped moving and slowly closed.

Aboard the Santa Maria Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell said," One down and how many to go."

"That is currently is unknown," said Teal'c

"We have detected the next gap, it will close on our position in fourteen hours" said Carter.  
O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

Murphy escorted a naval officer, two marines and a civilian called Doctor Kemper to Dresden's office.

They range the door bell

"Harry, I do believe we are about to have visitors," said Bob.

Harry just nodded and went into the front room. He looked out to see Murphy and her military escort. He opened the door anyway. "So what brings you here this fine day," asked Harry. 

The group entered. "Harry what this man is about to tell you is to be held in the strictest of confidences," said Murphy.

"Have we been drafted," asked Harry?

"Not quite, but I do require a confidentiality agreement," said Commander Kidd.

Harry read the agreement. This was not your standard government contract. "Who wrote this," asked Harry? 

"An outside contractor," said Kidd.

"I can see that, I need to discuss this with my legal adviser," said Harry. 

"Of course you may make seek any legal or spiritual advise you require, However I recommend that you cloak all your requests for advise in the hypothetical and we wish to retain a high degree of plausible denial," said Kidd.

"I will be right back," said Harry as he walked into the back.

Bob looked at the agreement, the ghost looked impressed. "Devan, I am almost certain, you have to inform the council," stated Bob.

Harry returned to the front room with suggestions of a good place to get lunch while he met with his legal adviser. A few minutes after they left Warden Morgan arrived.

"This time you called me Dresden, why does that not make me fell good," asked Morgan?

"Well as much as I enjoy ruining your day, I figured if I did not ask you about this, you would ruin mine. Besides what you do if someone from the government gave me a contract that looked like this." said Harry handing Morgan the scroll. .

"I would tell you this is something that is the matter for the council, answered the Warden.  
And in the event something like this was brought to council what you recommend the one who received something like this to do in the mean time," questioned Harry.

"Stall, if such a matter as this came before me I would be a fool to tarry much can be said about the council but they are not fools," said Morgan.

"Stall, I think you ruined my day," said Dresden.

"Anytime I can return the favor Dresden," said Morgan.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence as part of this work I am including all reference in both works in this disclaimer.

I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda, Another Fine Myth, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Babylon 5, Back To The Future, Battlestar Galactica, Bolo(Book Series), Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Captain Ron, Charmed, Catch 22, Dark Angel, Diagnosis Murder, Doctor Who, Due South, Early Edition, Farscape, Firefly, Forever knight, Friday the 13th: The Series, Hammers Slammers (Book Series), Highlander, Indiana Jones, Knight Rider, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Lord of the Rings, Love and Curses, MacGyver, Malcolm In The Middle, Martial Law, McHale's Navy, Mech Warrior (Game), Men In Black, Murder she wrote, Nash Bridges, Night Stalker, One Thousand and One Nights, Operation Petticoat, Painkiller Jane, Pirates of the Caribbean, Quantum Leap, Quincy, Relic Hunter, Serenity, Seven Days, Sliders, Space Above and Beyond, Special Unit 2, Star Gate SG1, Star Trek, Star wars, Terminator, The Black Company (book Series), The Dresden Files, The Final Countdown, The Incredible Hulk, The Love Boat, The Odyssey, The Pretender, The Princess Bride, The Sentinel, The Wackiest Ship In The Army, The Wizard of Oz, Time Bandits. Time Tunnel, Transformers, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Viper, Walker: Texas Range, X-Files, Whose products I have enjoyed in the past and recommend to the reader and make no claims on.

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A Voyage of Convergence

Chapter Four Meetings and Missions

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Krytolandros' Journey

As the suns first red gold rays danced along the morning surf Krytolandros' men made the ship ready the last bits of food and water stowed. Suddenly they started coming out of the morning surf. By two's by threes, they came by fives by tens they crawled across the sand. Elizabeth told the sailors to get in the boat and leave them alone. In their hundreds they surrounded the small vessel, several thousand strong the crabs lifted the boat and dragged it to the sea.

The crustaceans clung to the boat and paddled with multi jointed legs. As the ship moved crabs fell off as they tired, to be replaced by stronger swimmers. The fish moved them into deeper waters. The wind picked up and dolphin breached by the tiller oar. "Raise the sail," cried Elizabeth?

The Greeks in awe obeyed her. A fair wind took the sail.

They moved rapidly through the waters. Just over the horizon a storm from another world followed them.

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Halldór the Cold meets Sinbad

The Halldór's crew left with the tide, still his men needed to put their backs to the oars to be clear of the shore, for the wind was against them. Once clear of the island they headed northwest in hopes of finding their lost course. What they found were sails on a ship grander and with better lines then they had seen of late.

For Sinbad's crew the morning brought new hope. The morning sun quickly burned through the fog. The air was neither hot nor cold and the breeze was steady. It was with great relief and some confusion that greeted the sight of a sail on the horizon. Only one man on the ship was at all familiar with the type of ship they saw, and he was a heathen infidel. As the two ships grew closer Sinbad had the northerner attempt to hail the longboat. As they closed eyes on each ship viewed the other with suspicion. The northerner from Sinbad's ship was understood and greetings were returned. Through this interpreter the two ships talked. The two lost ships maintained northwesterly course while two confused navigators talked of impossibilities and skies that conspired against them. That night the two ships stop at a small island. In the morning they sailed north together brothers in confusion.

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Ballad of The Dread Pirate Roberts cont…

When the morning sun chased away the last of clouds it was another opportunity for the treacherous sky to frustrate the Dread Pirate Roberts and his navigator. That night the Dread Pirate said to his first mate, "I think I miss the revenge business. They spotted, land to the west and did some exploration. They worked their way south along the coast but saw no other ships. The hunting and fishing were good but they had nothing to pirate (not seeing any other ships and all). Three days later they were no less lost when a fog and the strange lights caught them again.

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The further Misadventures of Admiral Jack

Having finally secured the ingredients of the recipe the ship took a course from Bermuda to St. Augustine. Along the way they spotted a lone sail. This small heavily laden vessel was a gift no pirate could refuse. They took the ship quite easily. The crew surrendered their cargo of rum in exchange for their lives. That night there was great rejoicing. In the morning Captains Barbossa and Gibbs put guards on what was left of the rum.

Sparrow, Barbossa and Gibbs began an intense planning session as soon as their hangovers dissipated (about midday), the directions called for them to stop at St. Augustine. "The guns in the Castillo de San Marcos can blow us away if we dare enter the bay," said Gibbs.

"I have heard that things may a bit different now. The Treaty of Paris that has been a great curse to us. However that treaty has put the fort that the British failed to take by force, in British hands. England is less interested in defending the town and the fort than the Spanish were. I believe that they neither maintain nor defend the fort as well as the Spanish," explained Barbossa.

Admiral Sparrow was about to comment when they were interrupted by a cry from the watch. "Sail on the horizon starboard side!" said the watch.

It proved to be another rum ship and the muse of Admiral Jack's plan.

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The Nautilus had a new world and a new mission of exploration. Captain Nemo was still most curious about the phenomena that brought them here. So it was with a renewed sense of wonder that Captain and crew set out on their new mission. What troubled Nemo the most was to what extent the knowledge of he and his crew might contaminate this strange and innocent world. While they mapped the depths of this world's oceans and examined the wrecks of ships on the bottom of its seas he found that his opinion about this worlds innocence were overly optimistic. For not all the ships he found were wrecked by storms. Many were the causalities of war or piracy. They also found many new species of plants and animals. His ever active mind also developed a device that could track the type of magnetic fluctuations that were associated with the event that brought them here. It was late in his second month of exploration that the device gained a full function test. The Nautilus surfaced to get a better look at the strange phenomena it affected the air and sea, creating fog and currents, and later wind and waves. For the crew of the Nautilus it was the first time they saw the golden lights associated with the phenomena.

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That night the sky made sense for Captain Krane but very little else did. Grubber and Midland were having a hard time believing that they were over sixty years ahead of schedule. The off course halfway around the world part was a lot more believable. The Robinsons were taking things in stride. Mr. Green was still keeping his own company. Mr. Smith was a cool customer looking for more proof, but to someone who did not know the stars the only proof was the other ship. A ship could be faked but not the skies. Mrs. Smith let her husband do the talking.

The crew was taking things better mostly stunned disbelief except for his First Mate. Jim Dorothy was not taking things very well he had a wife and a kid that he might never see again.

Nye was another matter entirely he was currently taking Commander Farragut the commander of the Abraham Lincoln and some French Professor and his man servant on a tour of the ship. For some reason Gloria Kline was tagging along on the ships tour. Dan Gray was in the process of showing off his engines. Commander Farragut and Professor Aronnax were finding the engines fascinating as Gray went on and on about check valves and safety features. As they talked about gas laws and triple expansion engines Gloria was explaining a lot of the physics involved to the visitors. Nye asked how she was so knowledgeable about steam power. She merely stated that Vassar had prepared her well.

One of the more interesting things the guests shared was the strange mission, they were on. The Abraham Lincoln was in pursuit of a giant whale that had been attacking ships. The Frenchman was a naturalist how had volunteered to advance scientific knowledge during the hunt for the cetacean oddity. It was just the cap on Captain Krane's day that the ship eating whale was last seen in these waters. Nevertheless something larger and more threatening then a whale was already stalking Krane's ship.

High above the planet incredibly small machines detected the dimensionally inappropriate ship and began herding their patch of elemental chaos to the target. It came from above early the next morning, it struck quickly with little sign or warning. Seconds before it hit the compasses went wild. Then the barometers raised and their ears popped and the sun shifted positions. It was now time for Commander Farragut to join Krane in the joys of navigational disorientation and dimensional displacement.

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Lieutenant Commanders Matthew Sherman and Quinton McHale as well as Major Simon Butcher were having a lively discussion. Just who was in command considering the date, time in grade arguments tended to generate into abstract discussions. It was Ensign Parker that resolved the problem. The pilot that they rescued, one Major Greg 'Pappy' Boyington, was senior to them all. Unhappily the marine officer assumed command of the eclectic flotilla. Boyington always flew the plane in the squadron that was in the worst shape. A clogged fuel line had got him into this mess he would have few choice words with the mechanic if he ever got back.

The evening meal found the civilian commander of what had become the flagship of the flotilla was entertaining the commanders of his escort. Boyington had moved his command to the Pacific Princess after finding out how well its radios worked.

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The Adventure Galley was riding out another storm when the golden lights were on them once again. Things settled down quickly after the lights had past. Malcolm was again listening for clues on the radio. He caught a single on Channel 16 and asked Captain Ron about it. They both listened it was a call from a ship in English. Ron had Malcolm answer it "Hello this is the Adventure Galley come in," Malcolm broadcasted.

"Come in Adventure Galley this is the Pacific Princess," the radio returned.

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The captains' mess aboard the Pacific Princess had been fruitful. The group had made the decision to make for Bermuda in hopes of getting more information and maybe more fuel and supplies. Boyington was also making plans to tap into the talent pool the strange set of passengers aboard the Princess offered. It was during coffee that Tom Rayford interrupted them to tell them they had just had VHF communications. It was decided to allow this ship to catch up with them before they headed for the port of Hamilton. About two hours later the Adventure Galley joined the mismatched fleet.

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It was about eight PM when the radio operator in Hamilton picked up a strong signal. It was a request for port privileges from a strange group of ships. Three civilian and two small US Military vessels would be making port in the morning on an emergency stop. .

The plan was simple a small party would go into town to trade for provisions and gather information. Only a small party would go ashore to limit contact. Boyington took suggestions and meet with everyone who would be in the shore party.

The shore party was led by Lieutenant Junior Grade Nicholas Holden from the Sea Tiger, Holden would take direct charge of the supply mission. Chief Purser Burl "Gopher" Smith, Chief Petty Officer Willie Miller, Seaman first Class Lester Gruber, Seaman first Class Lester Gruber, Malcolm Wilkerson, and Amanda Smith would go along to assist him. The other part of the mission was fact-finding. Agent Fox Mulder was the assigned leader of this group. Rupert Giles, Duncan Macleod, Constable Benton Fraser, and Professor Sydney Fox gave him a well rounded staff of investigators.

Commander Sherman was quite confident in Holden's ability to acquire any available provisions. At the same time, he prayed that they find a way back to their own time so they would beyond the statute of limitations.

The night before making port had been a busy one. The printing facilities aboard the Pacific Princess had been put to good use forging documents. The real post dated papers would draw far too much attention so more appropriate passports and ships papers were being created. The ease at which twenty-first century desktop publishing could produce convincing twentieth century documents was a pleasant surprise for Gruber who formed a plan and presented it to Lieutenant Holden. Holden took the rough edges off the plan and Amanda refined it to perfection.

Amanda and Holden presented their documents to the customs party. It simplified things that only a small group was coming ashore. Their papers were accepted and a small sack of trade goods was inspected or at least that was what the inspector remembered. The neural neutralizer that Mulder carried sure helped in getting some very out of the ordinary items though customs.

With their papers accepted the group split up. The primary missions of the provisioning group were consumables fuel and food their first stop was the local office of the West Indian Oil Agency. Fox Mulder and Benton Fraser were off to see Governor Turner. Rupert Giles and Sydney Fox were combing libraries and book shops. Duncan Macleod went off to find a pub.

Governor Turner was most curious to find out about the new ships in his harbor. His staff had already informed him the ships were American. When two representatives from the ships came to see him, his curiosity got the better of him, and he had them shown into his office. To his surprise one of the two was a Canadian the other was indeed an American and carried diplomatic papers. When the two left his office the Governor was fully behind the top secret mission and new that fate of the empire as well as America were at stake. He had a whole new set of false memories of the meeting from the neural neutralizer. He still retained his initial impression that the Canadian had far better manners then the American.

After they left the office Fox Mulder reach into his coat pocket and pulled a small but powerful transceiver. "Stage one complete," was all the man in black said.

Nathan Meyrick was having a fine day, a steady sea breeze was keeping the worst of the tropical weather at bay. Meyrick was ready for a rather routine day. Mr. Jones told him there were some new ships in the harbor.

Outside the office of the oil agency Holden listened to the surprisingly small walky-talky upon hearing Mulder's transition Holden responded, "Roger, starting stage two."

An American Naval Officer entered the office and politely presented Meyrick's secretary a group of papers. The secretary informed Meyrick who decided to keep the young man as he reviewed the papers. The papers appeared very official but had some strange nondisclosure clauses in them. Meyrick sent a runner over to the Governors office. The American pulled out a device and began showing it to some clerks. It quickly caught the attention of many of the clerks; he soon had a crowd around him. Meyrick went out to see what the commotion was about. His lead accountant was playing with the device a small solar powered calculator. Meyrick decided to restore order to his office looking the note his secretary had given him earlier he cleared his throat and said, "Lieutenant Holden I will see you now."

Holden responded politely and joined Meyrick in his office. They exchanged pleasantries and then Meyrick inquired about the nature of the disruption in outer office.

"I was showing them the gift that my commander sent for you." Holden said handing Meyrick the calculator. Stalling and waiting for his runners return Meyrick had the Yank show him his toy. The little adding machine was an impressive device Meyrick was actually becoming interested in the device by the time his runner returned. After looking at the note from the Governor Meyrick was delighted to approve the personable young Lieutenant's petroleum requisition. In addition the oil company agreed to provide the Americans a line of credit in exchange for a consignment of adding machines and ballpoint pens (this hardly put, a dent in the Pacific Princess' souvenir shop inventory).

Holden emerged from the office with two pieces of paper. Amanda examined the two papers and said to the group, "gentleman we have some serious shopping to do."

Rupert Giles and Sydney Fox had been to the public library, two bookshops and had talked their way into a small well stocked private library. They were looking for little inconsistencies to prove the theory that they had moved to a different dimension rather then a different time. They found them in things like the name of Caligula's sister and the Catholic Church in St. George was finished months ahead of schedule.

Duncan Macleod was researching the same theory in a different way. Sergeant James McFadden from 2nd Battalion of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders did not recognize him but was just as good a drinking companion as Macleod remembered him to be.

The next day restocked with fuel and provisions the ships headed back to sea.

Aboard the Pacific Princess cabin 8032 Dawn walked in from the balcony and said, "We are leaving and we never got to go to town."

"Bermuda was on the itinerary for this cruise but I guess, 1927 wasn't," said Buffy.

"Will we ever get to go home," asked Dawn.

"It is easier for us then most of the others. As long as we have each other we are home," said the Slayer.

The odd flotilla set off for Miami in hopes of going else-when. They were not to be disappointed. Three hours out of port an inter-dimensional rift caught up with them.

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Out of gas Takashi Fujiyama and his Mitsubishi F1M2 float plane made a near perfect landing. Kazunori Ito had gotten off the mayday message now all they had to do was bob like a cork until they were picked up. A small taskforce was in the area.

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The Nimitz and the Bonhomme Richard were at full alert as they passed the rift as quickly as the weather allowed they deployed a protective air cap.

Two F/A-18F Super Hornets patrolled the skies in search of in the words of the briefing officer "just about anything that might hurt a carrier, and be on the look out for any clue that might tell us where and when we are." They found a small object floating on the water and one of the aircraft went down for a better look. "Head-Case this is Junior I have some sort of seaplane sitting on the water," Reported the youngest member of the squadron Junior made another pass to get a better ID on the seaplane. "Head-Case this is Junior looks like Japanese Markings, shit he's shooting at me!" exclaimed Junior as he noticed the stream of tracers coming from the aircraft's aft cockpit.

Ito's machine gun jammed as he fired at the strange aircraft. "He is coming back and I think you angered him," Fujiyama said as the aircraft turned into a more tactical looking approach. Ito his gun useless followed his pilot's example and dove into the Ocean. Less then a second later twenty millimeter cannon fire cut the float plane in half.

Treading water Ito said to his pilot, "I believe you are correct."

"Flight ops this is Junior we have two hostiles swimming. Notify air sea rescue,"

"Junior this is Head-Case we have company could use you up here." Head-Case radioed his wing man.

"All units this is flight ops radio intelligence suggests we have run smack dab into the middle of World War Two," reported Flight Operation.

"Head-Case this is Snoop-Dog I have two unidentified aircraft closing on your location from your ten o'clock, reported the E-2C Hawkeye.

"Snoop-Dog this is Head-Case, Junior and I are moving to intercept," replied Head-Case.

"Head-Case this is flight ops please identify before engaging," ordered Flight Operation.

"Head-Case this is Snoop-Dog I have another two unidentified aircraft closing on your location from your two o'clock, reported the E-2C Hawkeye.

"Snoop-Dog this is Head-Case, have all bogies on radar, Junior and I are going hi for a look see," replied Head-Case.

"Head-Case this is flight ops be aware Cave-Man and The Fish are on the way to your party," announced flight ops.

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"Back off Gutterman you're getting to close again," said Lt. Thomas Joseph 'T.J.' Wiley

"What are you going to do T.J. shoot me down again," said Capt. James 'Jim' Gutterman.

"Do you think will find the CO?" asked T.J.

"This is the last reported position of the PT boat that picked him up, so keep your eye's pealed," said Gutterman.

"Roger, "said T.J.

"T.J. look to your two we got company," said Gutterman suddenly all business.

"Junior this is Head-Case It's my turn to take the low road," said Head-Case.

Two Zero's were attempting to locate a spy and a downed float plane the lead plane notice a dark shape over his shoulder broke hard right and barely escaped the fate of his wingman who was being raked by a Corsair on his tail. The lead Zero managed to outturn it's own Corsair and get on the enemies tail.

"Gutterman where are you I have a Jap on my tail," radioed T.J.

"T.J. I am coming," said Gutterman.

Suddenly the Japanese plane behind him became a ball of flame.

"Thank You," said T.J.

"T.J. that wasn't me," said Gutterman.

Two dark shadows passed over the two marines at incredible speeds.

"Gutterman and T.J. this is Snoop-Dog do you read me," said E-2C Hawkeye now on the Corsair's frequency.

"This is Gutterman who the hell are you," asked Gutterman.

"I am a radar plane flying cap for a carrier task force," said Snoop-Dog.

"Whose task force," asked Gutterman.

"Gutterman we have twelve incoming along your current eleven are they with you?" asked Snoop-Dog.

Gutterman looked at the small dots on the horizon and he and TJ began climbing to more advantageous altitude.

"Gutterman I am bringing four of our aircraft so you can get a visual on us," said Snoop-Dog.

On Gutterman's right side the two Super Hornets made a low speed pass. T.J.'s left two

Harriers made a pass. The Hornets moved off at a speed that made Gutterman's aircraft look like it was standing still and made a quick pass above the dots.

"Gutterman Head-Case confirms contacts are Japanese he also has visual on eight surface vessels," said Snoop-Dog.

The Harriers broke off to the left and gained altitude.

Gutterman and his wingman watched as a dozen dots slowly turned into airplanes, by the time he could identify the Zero's four had been turned to falling balls of fire. Four pairs of desperate Zero's franticly sought escape. The two Corsairs dove on one of the pairs.

The single officer aboard Japanese light carrier was not having a good day he had two thirds of the carriers craft in the air and had no radio contact with anything. Someone was doing some heavy duty jamming. Two unidentified aircraft had just over flown the fleet. Whoever was doing the jamming was also playing games with radar as well. The Flagship of the small taskforce was communicating with flags. The carrier scrambled to get the rest of their aircraft into the sky. The extra air cover proved little protection as Harpoon Missiles quickly crippled the fleet leaving only one supply ship unharmed. To add insult to injury the air cover was mercilessly stripped away.

Gutterman and T.J. witnessed the terribly one sided battle. Of the eight ship task force only one supply ship remained intact it's decks loaded with survivors. The long range and dogfights had taken a toll on the Corsairs fuel as well. To add to his problems their compasses were doing strange things and the weather was getting rough.

"Snoop-Dog this is Gutterman we are low on fuel request permission to land on Carrier," requested Gutterman

The main reason the Marines had the Corsairs was that a Corsair Carrier landing was far from routine.

"Gutterman this is flight ops how much hang time do you have." asked flight ops.

The Carrier was bigger then expected Gutterman thought as he passed though the golden lights following the carrier. Good, he though, T.J. was going to need all the help he could get.

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"All units this is King report," ordered West.

As all units reported in West watched the black skies. On his port side was a large cratered landscape.

"What the hell is that," broadcast Smith forgetting all communications discipline.

"Trump, this is Poker Face, Whatever it is, it looks like we are in orbit around it." reported French.

King, Trump here, I have a contact, ship type unknown," reported Smith.

"Trump this is King we are strangers here try to communicate with them," recommended West.

Lieutenant Smith tried various frequencies and greetings as he and his wingman slowly closed on the mysterious craft. The ship he closed on was plainly illuminated by an as yet unidentified star. The two hammerheads were still in the shadow of the large cratered body.

Zoe was still scanning the Com when she found a strong local signal at the same time River said, "Company is coming should I set an extra place for diner."

"Hello this is the freighter Serenity who are you," Zoe transmitted.

"This is Hammerhead number alpha-seven-niner of USMC SAC 58." replied Smith.

Aboard the freighter Cobb said "I think they're military,"

"Or he has been hitting the alphabet soup a bit hard," commented Reynolds.

"We are off course and lost, we just came through some type of space storm," transmitted Zoe.

"We are lost too," replied Smith.

The lead two hammerheads emerged from the shadow of the large cratered body. While Smith talked with the freighter Lt. William French sorted through a lot of new data both visual and communications channels. He double checked his data looked at other com channels and relayed the ancient NTS video single to his squadron commander

"King, this is Poker Face, I thing you should take a look at this," said French.

"Poker Face this is King, "Why am I looking at the temperature in Albuquerque?" asked West.

"King, this is Poker Face, because we are in lunar orbit, going around Earth's moon." reported French.

As the rest of the squadron came out of the moons shadow a familiar blue marble came into view. At first the news about where they were was the source of great joy and relief. Joy quickly turned to disbelief as they discovered they were not in their own time.

Slowly at first the Serenity and the Wild Cards compared notes. Their histories did not match. As a group the spacecraft headed for the one place that might provide answers, Earth.

Not long after they left lunar orbit the strange phenomena hit them yet again.

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The Century Eagle found an area above the orbital plane of asteroid belt. This made the piloting easier but did little to change the ultimate problem of gross navigation. Ben was feeling a bit better now that he was over the initial shock of changing universes. Lando and Ben began checking the sensors and communications what they found was extensive but diffuse activity along the asteroid belt. After some discussion they made their way to one of the more active centers of activity along the belt. Moving slowly like most of the traffic so as to, not arouse undo suspicion. The local traffic had nowhere near their acceleration so they moved along at a snails pace.

Suddenly R8U248 started whistling excitedly.

"Here it comes again!" yelled Ben.

Lando accelerated his ship in an attempt to outrun the golden maw the attempt proved futile.

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"What the hell was that'" cried Rich Pierce the assistant traffic controller at asteroid 511. The small base in the mind out shell of an asteroid had become the nearest thing to a town in this third of the asteroid belt. It had become on ore processing station, a center of trade, and the government for the area. It saw more than thirty ships a day on average enough at times for twenty-four seven traffic monitoring. Something that was approaching the base had suddenly accelerated away at an incredible rate and then disappeared in a cloud of electromagnetic noise. This added to a missing squadron of Marines put the entire system on edge.

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Aboard the Forlorn Hope colonial warriors and the ships crew had gone through every stellar map, they had, no match. Now they were simply trying to make a map of were they were. Trying to get an idea of the distant stars the old fashion way they had spent a full day reinventing astronomy. It would be a while before they had an idea where the nearest star was, let alone a plan to jump away from this mass of dark matter that they were orbiting. Well at least they named the dark body they were orbiting. Starbuck had named it "Frack."

A considerable distance behind them behind them they detected another burst of energy similar to what had brought them here. Apollo and Sheba were on the bridge when the energy burst was detected.

The Bounty moved cloaked and on impulse as it once more became free of the anomaly. Tul Ghobe' monitored the sensors suspiciously. "Captain I detect another ship using some type of impulse drive," said the Klingon.

"Continue to watch it," commanded Mudd. "Mr Dannic any idea where we are," asked Mudd

"Currently, none what so-ever, answered Dannic authoritatively.

"Maybe we should ask the other ship," said Aronad Harf.

That well may be a logical course of action but I recommend we gather more information first," suggested Lai Kay.

"I have started a search of galactic images from multiple perspectives it will take awhile," said Dannic apologetically.

"Very well we wait, and make heavy use of sensors," said Mudd

"But this will put us behind schedule," complained Aronad Harf.

Mudd ignored him but he did enjoy the homicidal look the Klingon gave the publicist. They spent the next several hours observing the other craft while slowly closing the distance.

Persephone and Hades had the bridge. Having a large number of trained pilots gave them plenty of people to break things down into shifts. Their shift was already three quarters over and the it would be another wonderful round of building star maps. Hades however kept having this odd feeling. In the middle of nowhere he had this odd feeling that someone was watching them.

The ship that they had been watching had been remarkable boring just an occasional bit of sensor activity every now and then. Dannic's program had finally run it's course. The Orion reviewed the data and began presenting his results. He placed an image on their primary display and began; "You will see these two distant galaxies and the surrounding groups of galaxies and star clusters. The computer gives a eighty-five percent likelihood that they are the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies."

"Why only eighty-five percent," interrupted Mudd.

"The apparent age of the galaxies and the separation between galaxies is incongruent with our apparent distance from them indicating a temporal displacement. There are some other anomalies as well," lectured the navigator.

"Could you simply say where the hell we are without a course in astrophysics," asked a frustrated Aronad Harf.

The Orion eyed the Andorian with contempt and said simply, "If we are in our universe at all we are in a time long ago in a galaxy far far away."

Mudd was heart sick at the announcement but he wanted to keep up the moral of his crew. Never let them see you sweat he thought. Then he had an idea to lighten the situation. "See now Mister Harf we are well ahead of schedule. Prepare to engage warp at the first sign of hostility, drop cloak and raise shields, we are going to try a little good old fashioned communication," commanded Mudd with considerably more bravado then he was feeling.

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Persephone and Hades had only a few centons left on their shift Starbuck and Cassiopeia were all ready there to relieve them when it appeared out of nowhere. The bird shaped ship just faded into existence. The com came active and Hades quickly opened the frequency. A slightly chubby middle aged man appeared on the view screen and said, "I am Captain Harcourt Fenton Mudd of the HMS Bounty we come in peace and we are lost."

"Greetings from the colonial freighter Forlorn Hope I am Captain Persephone I am afraid we are having navigational difficulties of our own.

Their conversation was interrupted by a most impolite inter-dimensional rift.

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As soon they exited the anomaly Trance Gemini placed a position into Andromeda's helm. "We can wait here for a bit I think the next one will find us." Said Trance.

"Thank you Trance the data you entered is a good match to our current position," said the ships AI.

"I guess you know what you are doing do you have time to tell the rest of us," asked Beka?

"We are off the normal slip stream routes but some things are not within expected parameters," stated Andromeda

"That is because we are in the past of a parallel dimension," explained Trance.

"I am picking up a dozen small craft heading in our direction" reported Andromeda.

"Let's see what they want," said Dylan.

Dylan sent a greeting their response was to arm weapons.

I recommend launching slip fighters," said Andromeda.

"Do it Beka" said Dylan.

Rebecca Valentine prepared her piloting console for operating remote slip fighters. Two slip fighters left the ship to intercept the incoming craft. As soon as the slip fighters came within range they transmitted back data and pictures of the Oval shaped craft. The Oval shaped craft increased speed and began an attack. The slip fighter was better armed and far more maneuverable then the Raiders though outnumbered six to one the two slip fighters under Beka's control were hardly challenged at all. The fight that Cylons started was quickly finished by the slip fighters.

"Great universe we are here less than an hour and we have already been attacked by the gang that couldn't shoot strait," complained Harper.

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They were in deep space no star within a parsec of their current position.

"Moya feels that this area is more familiar. She is not yet certain of our location, said Pilot.

Crichton stared at the star field and was hit by an incredible sense of déjà vu.

"Pilot these stars, look familiar." "Yes, see that's the big dipped, and that, that's Orions belt. "

Pilot's response was somewhat unexpected however. "Then if you have been here before Crichton could you please explain what the gold phenomena approaching us is"

Crichton responded with one word, repeated several times each more loudly then the last.

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"I am observing activity similar to that of the anomaly we just passed through," reported Andromeda.

"Here we go again," said Harper.

"Not quite yet," said Trance gently.

"I am picking up a large life form heading in our direction" reported Andromeda.

"Talk to it nicely it is a gentle creature easily freighted, recommended Trance.

"Hello this is Captain Dylan Hunt of the Systems Commonwealth aboard the Andromeda Ascendant," the High Guard officer stated in a formal but friendly manner.

"Greetings I am pilot of the Leviathan Moya we greet you in friendship," returned Pilot.

Aboard the bridge Harper commented "Things are looking up, they are not shooting at us.

"Yet!" said Rhade.

"I detect no weapons," reported Andromeda.

Once the pleasantries were exchanged ships and crews began an exchange of information. Crichton in his own direct way was first to ask the questions both crews had in mind: "Did you bring us here? "Do you have any idea where the hell here is?" and "Do you have any idea what the hell is going on?" Andromeda and her crew cooperated fully. Andromeda crew had a better Idea of what was going on then Moya's. Still it was more of a light snack then a full meal.

The golden rift took the two ships about two hours after they met.

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Vulpa eleven the newly assigned command centurion detailed with the pursuit of the colonial fleet looked at the pattern of attacks there were raids all over this sector. But in one sector he had a raid and lost two patrols. This had to be the route the colonial fleet was taking all the others had to be diversions. He would mass his forces there.

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The scientists, technicians and ships crews were very busy. There was data to gather, this became a bit more of a problem, in that they were not certain what data would be important. The problem was met head on with a shotgun record everything approach.

As they waited and watched G'Kar turned to Delenn and said, "How confident are you in our ever getting back."

"We must get back to seal the rift," Delenn replied.

"Ahh! How very reassuring, We may not get home but if it is the end of our universe we will be the first ones to know," Reflected G'Kar.

The warning sounded and the ships began shutting down the more sensitive systems the next rift was on its way.

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The Three ships from SGC came through the Gap and sent out the single to close it. As with the last gate they use their instruments to record what data the could while they waited while the gap found them and they hopped nothing else did. The goal was cover and close as many gates as they could as quickly as they could and to leave as little trace of their presence behind as possible.

Aboard the Santa Maria Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell said, "Another one bites the dust. How much of a head start does this probe have on us does this probe have on us?"

"About six thousand years," answered Jackson.

"We have detected the next gap, it will close on our position in twenty-three hours" said Carter.

"You two certainly know how ruin the party spirit" said Vala.

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Murphy Kidd and company returned from lunch baring gifts, they bought take out for Harry. Harry thanked them and told them he was famished. He began eating and making small talk.

The more Harry tried to stay off topic the more Commander Kidd tried to get back to business. Harry said, "I can not really give you an answer now my legal adviser has not yet gotten back to me, however if I was to undertake such an endeavor there are a few things I might require. He handed kid a shopping list."

Murphy watched more of this strange game going on between Kidd and Dresden it was sort of like negotiations between the US and Korea. Or was it like hostage negotiations were no one would admit the hostages were born.

Kidd read the shopping list into a secure phone. "I will have everything in about two hours except for the kippered herring. Captain Williams if you please."

The Marine walked out to the car and brought in two cans of fish.

Murphy was the first to ask the question, "Do you always carry a can of kippered herring with you?"

"Only on missions," replied the Marine dryly.

Harry got in the next question, "Why?"

"On my first mission, a can of kippered herring my mother sent me saved my life, the rest is classified," answered Captain Vincent Williams.

The wall of secrecy once more dampened the conversation the room was silent for a while. A knock broken the awkward silence on the door.

Harry invited Morgan, Amber and Mali in. Morgan and Amber were carrying what looked like grocery pages.

"Let me introduce Mali, Morgan and Amber my legal advisers," said Harry. Harry continued the introductions, "These are the guests I told you about Lieutenant Murphy of Chicago's finest, Commander Kidd of the US Navy, Doctor Kemper, Captain Williams and Gunnery Sergeant Goldstein of the United States Marines."

Mai got right to the point, "Commander Kidd and I have met before. I extend to Harry and my two companions the terms of our pervious agreement will you do so for those with you."

"I do so affirm," said Kidd formally.

"Harry does an effective job of warding the place we can talk freely," Said Mai.

"But first I would like to know about SGC and Harry Dresden and deals with Deveels," commanded Mai.

"The only one I know that has ever had anything to do with them was an old man, an Archer. I gave him my business card," said Harry.

"We answered a call for aid from agents of an extra temporal and dimensional being of great power. After the battle we received Mister Dresden's name as a point of contact should we ever need help of an extra dimensional nature from a Pervect that led a mercenary group," said Kidd as he handed here two cards and a scroll. One was Harry's the other was for a company called Myth Inc. located in the Bazaar on Deva.

"Harry your prepensely for trouble has once again surprised me and I am not easily surprised, Ok Commander Kidd what crisis brings you here?" said Mai.

Kidd began the explanation it took awhile.


	5. Chapter 5

A Voyage of Convergence

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

Chapter Five Natural and Unnatural Logs

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The Journal of Elizabeth Turner

I am starting this journal it is for you William and the child I now carry. It is hard to write as it must contain all my hopes and fears. My hope that with Tia Dalma I have the best of all possible midwifes and my fear that she will not be there at my time of need. My hope to hold my child and my fear that one or, both of us will be lost in childbirth. It must contain my hopes to be in your arms again dear William and my fear of the next lonely years. At the time of this writing the baby is do in the next month. I have spent most of the last eight months moving from Island in a boat that is a fugitive from the bronze age. Tia or Calypso has been shuttling us between islands she is waiting for the baby to be born before she takes me to the fountain. Krytolandros and his men have been most attentive but I do not know if it his culture or fear of Calypso that makes him and his men such gentlemen. I am once more reminded of the importance of a classical education, who would have thought when I was conjugating verbs in Latin and Greek that I would have to so use my knowledge of the latter.

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Log Book of Omar the Navigator

By the grace Allah we still sail the seas. What sea Allah the great and merciful has not seen fit to reveal. We are sailing north this is the second day after the second time the sky changed. After half a day's sail on a northern heading, we found an inhabited island, we stopped to trade and reconnoiter. The people on this island spoke a dialect of Greek.. From what I have gathered from them, we are somewhere in the Ionian Sea this remains to be proven.

By the grace Allah we still sail the seas. We are sailing north east, this the third day after the second time the sky changed. We are in hopes of hitting the western cost of Greece. I pray to Allah we are correct.

Praise Allah the most merciful, we have found the Greek mainland, we are in the Ionian Sea. However we have found it to be more sparsely settled then expected oddly the infidels here are true pagans rather then the people of the church one would expect. On this, the fourth day after the second time the sky changed. It is as if were thrown back in time. On the morrow we sail south.

Oh! Allah have mercy on your unworthy children. The sky has changed again.

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Log book of the Dread Pirate Roberts

Once more, the sky has shifted none of the crew has seen the stars, we see here. The pirating is good but the ships we find are of a strange and primitive type. We of late have become more explores then pirates.

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Excerpt From the Transcript of the Court Marshal of Colonel Wesley Bridgeton.

Prosecutor: For the record please state your Name

Witness: Juan Rajas

Prosecutor: In your own words please describe the events of the night of June the third.

Witness: It was a sunny day, a Spanish Merchantman came into the harbor. The Colonel came down to the peer to inspect it.

Prosecutor: How do you know this?

Witness: He always come to inspect the new ships in port, well anything larger then a fishing boat. And I work on the docks.

Prosecutor: Doing what

Witness: I am a shipwright. Though we do not have a ship in everyday there is more then enough work for me.

Prosecutor: Please continue.

Witness: The ship came into the harbor and the Colonel came down to get his bribe

Defense: Objection your honor. There is no proof of bribery.

Judge: Objection noted the witness is instructed to not make unsupported accusations.

Prosecutor: Please tell the court why you believe that the Colonel was taking bribes

Witness: I worked with most of the Captains that came and went. They would always tell me that the Colonel would not clear any ship till they paid him a special gift over and above the tariff and portage fees.

Defense: Objection your honor hearsay

Judge: Objection noted the witness is instructed to stick to what he has actually observed.

Prosecutor: Please continue.

Witness: The Colonel usually left with a sample of the cargo, a few times I helped carry samples to the Colonels home. Some of the samples being to large for one man to carry I was paid to help.

Defense: Objection your honor there is no evidence these items were not purchased.

Prosecutor: I will present cooperating information later.

Judge: I will allow it for now.

Prosecutor: Let us get back to the events of June the third.

Witness: Well Colonel went aboard the Merchantman and he did not come out for a while. Then some men came out of the ship with some of the Cargo. They had me and Jim Styles take casks of rum to Castillo de San… I mean Fort St. Mark. One had a note to the men.

Prosecutor: What did the note say?

Witness: I did not read it.

Prosecutor: I would like to enter this document into evidence at this time.

Defense: Objection your honor there is no verification that this is the note

Prosecutor: Your honor I will establish that later

Judge: Then present your evidence at that time.

Prosecutor: Yes, your honor.

Prosecutor: Please continue with your story.

Witness: Well the Sergeant read the note and said, said, well he was surprised.

Prosecutor: What did he say

Witness: Well it was not a comment for polite company.

Prosecutor: Well this is a court and we want the whole truth.

Witness: Sorry your honor, He said "Well who would of thought the cheep bastard would remember us enlisted blokes."

Prosecutor: What happened next?

Witness: Well the sergeant taped a cask, of rum and he offered me and Jim a cup.

Prosecutor: Was the sergeant on duty

Witness: I do not think so

Prosecutor: Why

Witness: He did not have on his britches, well not his uniform britches. It was a hot day.

Prosecutor: Please continue.

Witness: Well they had two men on guard but the rest of the men joined us in some rum. That was some good rum strong but smooth not watered down any. Well we drank to sundown. Did I mention it was a hot day. At dusk they came.

Prosecutor: Who came?

Witness: The pirates. Can't tell you too much about them but what I remember is them taking out the two guards and tying us up. Then their ship came into the harbor.

Prosecutor: What ship?

Witness: The black pearl. They robed the armory and several of the shops by the Bay. Then they made their ship spin three times in the harbor. And left.

Defense: Objection your honor the witness is testifying to things he saw in a drunken stupor.

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Captain's Log the Nautilus

The phenomena that tossed us so casually into another world seems to have visited us again. It has returned to our own world somewhere in the southern hemisphere. Examination of the local flora and fauna tends to indicate the Indian Ocean. Further study is necessary.

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Captains Log USS Abraham Lincoln

This morning the crew and I experienced rather disturbing appearance. At seven-thirty AM a strange gold glow surrounded us then a wave of pressure caused an ear popping experience. Immediately after the experience we noticed the sun shifted in the sky. The sun was positioned in a manner more appropriate for none then seven-thirty-five A.M. It appeared we had lost over four hours. The Mystic Lady was still off our port bow my fear was that we were now subject to a similar fate as the ship from the future. I summoned Monsieur Aronnax to the bridge we talked at length about the incident. We went across to the Mystic Lady, they compared this experience with their earlier one. With trepidation we waited for nightfall. I do not know if this log book will ever be read by any member of the US navy I can only pray that we may find a way home. I know of no sky the like of what I see tonight. Monsieur Aronnax and I as well as the people from the Mystic Lady believe we may well be on another world. We have maintained a western heading no real reason we will see if we find land.

This is our second day in uncharted waters. We are still heading west nothing new to report.

This is our third day in uncharted waters. We seem to be approaching land. Looking for suitable anchorage then we will set forth foraging parties.

This is our fourth day in uncharted waters. Made landfall set forth foraging parties and work parties, pine forest not to far from cost foragers found usable amounts of food fuel and fresh water for both ships.

This is our fifth day in uncharted waters. Work parties still foraging should leave on morrow.

This is our sixth day in uncharted waters. We traveling south hugging the cost in search of some sign of civilization none as yet.

This is our seventh day in uncharted waters. We traveling south hugging the cost in search of some sign of civilization none as yet.

This is our eight day in uncharted waters. We are traveling south hugging the cost in search of some sign of civilization. We have found a small fishing village. Natives speak English call their kingdom Florin. We have been given some basic chart information will be heading to a larger port city.

This is our ninth day in waters near Florin. We have come across a local merchantman, her captain complains that there are pirates in area we offered to escort him since he is heading the same way, we are. He has agreed go with us and has far better charts of these waters then those we copied from the fishermen.

This is our tenth day in waters near Florin. Heavy weather came upon us suddenly. The golden lights flashed in the middle of the worst of it and took all three ships. I fear that Captain Pennington and the Prospect have also been torn from their world or time even if this event brings the Mystic Lady or us home. For now clouds obscure the sky.

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Captains Log S. S. Sea Tiger

We were three hours out of port when the Phenomena found us again this time the storm hit us after the golden light. Someone on the cruse ship said we had a large area of warm air move with us into a colder climate. Major Boyington ordered a full tactical alert. His estimate of possible hostile forces was unique, "We do not know where, or when, we are, be on the look out for anything from two cavemen on a log to Buck fucking Rodgers. " We went east for lack of a better direction. No radio contacts. By nightfall the weather had cleared. With a few hours of clear sky we had a latitude 35 degrees 42 minutes north. Who knows we may be off the coast of North Carolina or Never-Never-Land. .

This is the second day after 1927 excursion heading east date unknown. The more I find out about inter-dimensional travel the more of my preconceptions I have torpedoed. It seems that many of the passengers aboard the Pacific Princess are not of the same dimensional and/or world as the rest. Not all are even human. This however strange it may seem is an advantage. We have a number of sentient beings that are natural flyers that Major Boyington was quick to capitalize upon. We have our own air force of sorts. Two harpies and a three flying monkeys and a young women that claims she used to be a flying monkey that had a powered hang glider in her luggage. From what I am told a powered hang glider is a sort of kite with a motor. We are sending the fliers out for scouting today.

This is my second entry this day. The flyers have spotted land. We now have an idea were we are. The flyers have spotted Mt. Fuji we are turning south we are still calculating when we are.

This is the third day after 1927 excursion to our best current estimate it this dimension's equivalent of November 1866 day as yet to be determined. Some of the people on the Princess know astronomy a lot better then I. We are currently debating on heading to Nagasaki. This was not exactly something I thought I would be logging when the Sea Tiger came out of refit only a mouth ago subjective time.

We are now in our fourth day in 1866, November 29; we have made contact with a British merchant frigate the Owen Glendower. We are escorting her as we head for Nagasaki.

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Captain's Log USS Nimitz (CVN-68)

I am logging this entry on the first day after our fourth event. The crews of both the Nimitz and the Richard have the emergency recovery and redeployment drill for space time disturbances down to a fine art. We have had far too many live practice sessions the last was in the middle of a battle. I have talked to both of our most recent sets of hitch hikers we now have two Japanese POWs and Two Marine WWII pilots. We currently have our air cap in place and have begun exploration flights we have land to our west and have begun map analysis. 25 May 1927 is the date of this log entry as I have just been informed of results of our radio surveillance. We are fifty nautical miles east of Miami, Florida. We will attempt to get some supplies from Miami.

We have sent a shore party ahead to Miami we in hopes of finding supplies. We do not believe the port is currently able to accommodate ships of our size. Today we encountered a US warship we sent a helicopter out to greet her.

26 May 1927 I have just had a very long discussion with the Captain Overstreet of the USS Wyoming (BB32). After some discussion he has decided to aid us in securing supplies. We are heading north with the Wyoming supplies will meet us at sea.

27 May 1927 we have met with a group of small boats and freighters off the cost of Georgia. That Overstreet managed to get an oiler for his coal burning ship shows him to be a master of logistics. All but the Oiler Cuyama and the Wyoming had left when we had a sudden change in the weather. Warning the two ships of our previous encounters we move to the source of the magnetic disturbance while the two ships headed in the opposite direction. Unfortunately we did not separate by a sufficiently great difference and the two ships were caught with us in the event.

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Journal of Captain Shane Vansen

Ever since I escaped from the AI's I have been promising myself I would start this journal. Well now that I am a prisoner on my own ship I have sometime. My primary job right now is proving to Hawkes and West that I really am me. From what they are telling me they have managed to find themselves in a unique situation. It seems, they are being thrown about by some strange hole in time or something. I have been talking with Vanessa about this she has no idea what they are talking about, maybe it is some sort of test. As to my identity problem I think Hawkes wants to believe, but he has a lot riding on the decision. I cannot blame him for being paranoid for most of his life everybody was out to get him.

Hawkes has just given us an update we are in orbit around Earth, Earth in the early Twenty-First Century. They spotted another ship that was from what they are calling an alternate time line. It was moving with them when the space time hole grabbed us again and threw us almost a year farther back in time. It also moved us way off our orbital path. Hawkes brought me to the bridge (under guard) to have a look see. I Talked with West over radio. He is using every bit of ECM at his disposal to have us look like space junk but two dam freighters are hard to hide. I had the opportunity to see their time eating monster, the gold light was kind of pretty. The direct hail we received almost was not very friendly but very direct.

"Unidentified inter-dimensional craft please identify yourself. You are in violation of reality protection treaty two-forty-two."

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Abstract of Digital Log R8U248

Have reactivated peripheral systems after electromagnetic assault diagnostics are currently running. All of my systems are functional. I am reinitializing interface with ship. I am running ship's diagnostics. There are no essential systems damaged several of ships systems are running on backup systems have created repair plan. Bens reaction to this encounter was not as severe as the last similar event no clean up of biological corrosive agents will be needed this time. Star sightings are in a pattern similar to last system but some data is anomalous. System has communications traffic. Humans traffic present lack of droid to droid traffic but heavy digital traffic. There is a distinct lack of traffic between other sentient beings. All planets and moons heavily terraformed indicating an untouched pre-hyperspace civilization.

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Captains Log Forlorn Hope Captain Persephone recording

This strange hole in reality that has been stalking us has done it again. This time it has thrown us into an asteroid field. I radically altered course to avoid collision. The bird shaped, ship that we had been talking to only seconds before easily matched our maneuver. We noticed two strong sensor images on they were ninety degrees apart they were hyperspace signatures. A group of fighters was headed our way from the asteroid belt a large ship was moving behind them. Then our bird like companion simply disappeared things all went to hell.

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After action report Colonel Tyrus Cassius McQueen USMC attaché assigned to Russian Republic Carrier Admiral Kuznetsov

The Admiral Kuznetsov had been dispatched in support of the Delta Seven Corporation mining operation. Several actions preceded the commitment of the Kuznetsov to this area. The carrier was assigned by United Nations Space Command to reserve logistics support of fleet operations. Initial intelligence reported AI activity and possibly a hidden Chig base in the area. This combined with the disappearance of the of the USMC SAC 58th Squadron, reports of sightings of an alien ship of unknown capabilities sited by asteroid base 511, and the strange reports of an unknown type of electromagnetic phenomena made this an area of interest.

The incident began with another electromagnetic incident. Two ship sized sensor contacts emerged from the phenomena one disappeared the other went into stable stellar orbit above the plain of the asteroid belt. Asteroid Base 511 went to full alert the ship was an unknown type. Upon going to full tactical sensors the Base discovered eighteen Chig fighters moving into an attach position using asteroids as cover. This happened simultaneously with the entry of both the UN task force and a Chig raiding fleet. Because of the near simultaneous transition from hyperspace the two fleets were unaware of each other. Asteroid Base 511 had already put out an alarm based on the Chig fighters it had detected. The USS Saratoga immediately went to full alert scrambling fighter squadrons as it closed the distance to Asteroid Base 511.

The unknown ship began transmitting in a strange language. Due to the possibly inadvertent advanced warning of this ship the squadron of fighters stationed on Asteroid Base 511 was able to launch before the in system Chig squadron could move into attack position.

The Admiral Kuznetsov along with the rest of the UN task force was also alerted by the Base 511 transmission and went to tactical alert. The Chig raiding fleet was already deploying and heading inbound toward Asteroid Base 511. The unknown ships flight path was taking it between the base and the Chig fleet.

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Personal Journal Aronad Harf

On entering the system the ship went immediately to cloak. The Forlorn Hope did not have that option the ship and lacked a modern universal translator. They began transmission of greetings that were interpreted as gibberish by the other ships in system. Our monitoring of transmissions within the system indicated that hostilities were imminent. After some discussion we formulated a plan. After Lai Kay and Tul Ghobe' completed an analysis of the potential protagonist, we formulated a plan. We dropped cloak and uploaded a translation program to the Forlorn Hope. We then engaged, warp and maneuvered to an area outside of the trajectories of the belligerents.

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Captains Log Forlorn Hope Captain Persephone recording

The Bounty materialized as suddenly it had disappeared. The Bounty transmitted to us both a tactical assessment and a translation program for the local language. We attempted to maneuver out of harms way and began the tediously slow task of launching the vipers from the cargo bay. The Bounty had already accelerated to an incredible speed and disappeared.

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After action report Colonel Tyrus Cassius McQueen USMC attaché assigned to Russian Republic Carrier Admiral Kuznetsov

The second unknown ship briefly appeared again moving away from the asteroid belt on a course perpendicular to that of the advancing Chigs. The ship accelerated rapidly moving at nearly .7 C before sensors could no longer track it. The other ship slowly began launching some form of fighters. By about the time it had launched its second fighter it began transmitting in English. By this time the fighters from Base 511 and the in system Chig fighters were already engaging.

Along the asteroid belt civilian craft from small mining shuttles to large freighters tried very hard to be somewhere else. Some civilian craft headed for the hyper limit, others tried to be one with the rocks, still others headed to any base other then 511.

The unknown ship that had launched the fighters identified its self as the Colonial Freighter Forlorn Hope it then declared itself to be in a neutral defensive posture. The Forlorn Hope identified the fast moving Ghost ship as the HMS Bounty. The Forlorn Hope launched a total of three fighters that took up defensive positions around her.

The Chig raider force moved inward behind its fighter screen they were attacking with a force that would have been sufficient to overwhelm the defenses in this system before the arrival of the UN Task Force. A squadron of Chig fighters moved to intercept the Forlorn Hope and her escort. The Forlorn Hope transmitted several warnings at the Chigs the Chigs continued pursuit.

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Captains Log Forlorn Hope Captain Persephone recording

Despite of our warnings and claims of neutrality one group of fighters continued to close in on our ship. When non-communicative fighters reached a point where we could no longer not consider them a threat Apollo gave the order to engage. The attacking fighters continued to close in Apollo, Starbuck, and made an aggressive head on pass at their more numerous opponents (Apollo later confided in me that this was probably not the best thing to do against an unknown opponent) fortunately the Vipers weapons gave them a better engagement range and there were two less hostiles. Half the enemy tried to turn to chase the Vipers the other half continued to case us. Although better piloted then the Cylons these foes were slower and less agile. While Apollo and Starbuck continued to engage the forces arrayed against them Sheba broke from the fray and aggressively attacked the fighters that pursued the Forlorn Hope.

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Personal Journal Aronad Harf

Having put a considerable distance between us and the belligerents we began a discussion of additional actions. Captain Mudd carefully weighed he options we presented him. Seeing the lack of respect of the methane breathers for the Forlorn Hope's neutrality, Mudd made his decision.

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After action report Colonel Tyrus Cassius McQueen USMC attaché assigned to Russian Republic Carrier Admiral Kuznetsov

The three fighters from the Forlorn Hope took a heavy toll on the Chigs chasing her. The one lone fighter that had rushed to defend the freighter moved so quickly that it caught three Chig fighters unaware and killed them with its energy weapons. The Chigs broke off pursuit of the freighter as it turned radically revealing a squadron of Hammerheads from the Saratoga.

The dogfight around Base 511 was a costly draw but had reduced the Chigs to the point were the bases defenses were effective.

The main Chig force had finally noticed the presence of the newly arrived UN force and began to reform to engage the new threat. The battle was about to turn into a massive slugging match when the Bounty struck. The ghost ship appeared out of nowhere behind the Chig fleet firing massively powerful weapons. A Chig Carrier died and the ghost fled faster then any fighter faster than light itself. As the first Fighters from the Saratoga began to make contact with the enemy the phantom struck again taking out a cruiser.

Against this sudden and unexpected assault the Chigs began turning for the hyper limit the assault was broken the Saratoga and its fighters harassed the fleeing Chigs as the phantom struck a third time damaging a destroyer with its lesser weapons.

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Personal Journal Aronad Harf

It was most fortunate that Captain Mudd told Tul Ghobe' to reign in his enthusiasm to better conserve ammunition because the enemy ships were fragile things. For a brief time he allowed Dannic and Tul Ghobe' to play with the fighters using only disrupters. The two reminded me of earth felines with their predatory playfulness. Finally with the methane breathers in full retreat he rejoined the Forlorn Hope.

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After action report Colonel Tyrus Cassius McQueen USMC attaché assigned to Russian Republic Carrier Admiral Kuznetsov

The Chigs quickly abounded the system failing to recover some of their fighters. The only action, the UN ships saw was in the clean up. Within a few hours after the battle a group of minors found the hidden enemy base.

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Log of Commodore Glen van Ross USS Saratoga Commanding

It had been one day since the battle. The Saratoga was on side of the asteroid belt while the Admiral Kuznetsov was on the other. The two extra-dimensional ships were moving in unison with the Saratoga. It was time to have a meet and greet with our new allies. Therefore I have invited them over to the Saratoga for dinner also attending this formal dinner will be Admiral Georgiy Egorov Commander of the UN 27th fleet and Colonel Tyrus McQueen. McQueen is serving as Egorov's attaché. It will be good to see McQueen again an old friend and respected comrade. McQueen has had some extensive surgery involving many of the latest prosthetics and some extensive rehab.

We will be entertaining three guests from each ship. The party from the bounty simply teleported over to our ship (much to the shock of me and ships security). Captain Harcourt Fenton Mudd he prefers to be called Harry. Harry is the commander of the Bounty. He a self confessed rouge, turned businessman. He is a human in a universe that has a more advanced timeline then ours. In his universe the first major alien contact was with a race called the Vulcans his engineering officer Lai Kay is a member of that race. They are a lot less alien than the Chigs. His publicist is Aronad Harf an Andorian. He is humanoid but blue with antenna. He is a great contrast in personality to Lai Kay. She is extremely reserved while he has nearly effervescent personality. Somehow I think that their universe is not as tranquil as they describe. I must ask why such a heavily armed ship is used to haul coffee.

The Forlorn Hope sent its party to us in a much more conventional shuttle. Apollo is the Commander of the expedition embarked aboard the Forlorn Hope the situation his people face seams so dire that I must admire his peoples strength against such diversity. His group is all human both Starbuck and Sheba seam to be most interesting individuals.

Captain Mudd brought some of his Raktajino with him. Very good stuff maybe I will have to revise my opinion as to why his cargo needs such a hefty defense.

It was during desert that the Rift took all three of our ships.

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This is John Crichton I've been keeping an informal journal for sometime, kind of a habit now. Well boys and girls here is the latest. Just as I am getting the hang of the Uncharted Territories getting ready for a little of the happily ever after with Aeryn and little D'Argo we find this funky rift that throws us from one parallel dimension to the next. We are currently in the back end of nowhere orbiting an above average large chunk of dark matter. I am currently talking to the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant. The Andromeda joined us in this magical mystery tour just prior to our last trip through the golden gate. Aeryn and I had a chance to take a transport pod over to the new neighbors and say hello. Interesting group Captain Dylan Hunt has over there. Andromeda is not just a ship she is an AI warship. Yes folks an artificial intelligence guiding a super weapons platform kind of makes Mary Shelley vision seam tame. Now I am not saying is not a nice person but she is a warship. Then there are the two androids that were built around copies of Andromeda's AI. The ship and the two androids have this weird sister thing going that as a little crazy. Then there is Beka Valentine she seems to be the strongest personality on the ship. Telemachus Rhade gives this sort of one man army vibe though personable he gives the impression he is the type who likes to knock heads. The two most interesting members of the crew are Seamus Harper and Trance Gemini. I think these two actually have a clue as to what is going on. The golden-skinned girl is a bit of an enigma bubbly air head one second able to look right through you the next. She knows, and I do not know how, how these things are put together. She also likes Moya which is defiantly a point in her favor. Harper is their engineer a tech geek's tech geek and the guy is from his Universes version of Earth, (an Earth that would give Harvey nightmares). While Trance's knowledge is intuitive Harper is trying to put things together scientifically. We stayed for dinner, they seem to be nice people, Hunt treated it almost as an affair of state Harper made it real. We invited them over for dinner tomorrow Trance says we will be here three days.

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Captains Log GADF Star Destroyer Balance Captain Dean Pault recording

The Balance is in her forty-fifth day of a three month long anti-piracy patrol. Our prime mission out here is to look under the various rocks in the neighbor and see what crawls out. This far out we are more or less a token presence. This old Victory Class Star Destroyer has been reworked twice and is older then most of the crew. She may not be fast enough to catch the faster riffraff but we can certainly keep them from setting up bases in the area. We are currently in rout to a dark matter body that has been a popular hidey-hole in the past.

The Balance is in her forty-sixth day of a three month long anti-piracy patrol. We have arrived in system D347829. We encountered two unknown craft they seemed to be making extensive survey scans of area. We initiated communication. They indicated that they were here to observe a dangerous cosmic event. Both ships are moderately sized. The larger ship is armed and the smaller ship appears to be a life form. Both ships are of unfamiliar types. They keep warning us to keep a distance. We will take a non-aggressive weapons profile and move closer to see what they are up to. We have observed them for several hours no clue what they are up to.

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This is John Crichton I have just spent the last half hour trying to tell a hard headed idiot that if he did not wish to accompany us on our trip to Oz he best back off. I do not thing he believes me. His ship looks like it came right out of Star Wars. I think it might be that creative people actually see into other universes. Going to stop logging for now and tell old hard head that what we are waiting for just started showing up on sensors.

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Captains Log GADF Star Destroyer Balance Captain Dean Pault recording

I was prepared for many things from the unknown ship. Honesty was not one of them. The event they described is coming this way and I am unable to avoid it. Transmitting this log to a warning buoy I placed earlier.

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Centurions report: Have examined wreckage from of lost patrols both were damaged by hostel fire.

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Vulpa Eleven Report: Have positioned four Base stars along the most likely avenue of escape. Waiting on high alert.

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Captains Log USS Helin (NCC-1692) Commander Vincent Tangora reporting

We are examining the last reported position of the restored Bird of Pray HMS Bounty a Klingon built ship registered to Mudd Raktajino Ltd. The ship was on a publicity tour. The ship was out of communication and overdue for its destination. We detected strange and powerful electromagnetic interference emanating from the area. Moving to investigate the disturbance we encountered three ships of unknown type. We hailed them the smallest of the three ships answered our hail.

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Star Fleet Headquarters Communications log Earth Date 6/16/2297 1443 hours

USS Helin reported dangerous extra dimensional phenomena in section 010103 see accompanying data log. Post a warning of navigational warning to all ships. Will accompany extra dimensional aliens on mission to terminate hazard and retrieve federation citizens.

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Captains Log USS Helin (NCC-1692) Commander Vincent Tangora reporting

The two Vree ships and the White Star await the inter-dimensional rift. We are recording all related data. Here it comes.

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Mission Log Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell

We are passing though our third universe. No incidents.

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Mission Log Lieutenant Commander William Kidd

Working with Mister Dresden we have procured the cooperation of the White Counsel. Wizards of the council have the ability to harness extra-dimensional forces using a few props and acts of will. How they do this demands farther study. For now we have a universe to save. We moved into a back room of the store Mai and company drew a pattern on the floor and began an elaborate ritual. About two hours later Mai order us to get ready. About thirty minutes after we all stood in the middle of the pattern with one last word from Mai we were elsewhere.

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	6. Chapter 6

A Voyage of Convergence

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Chapter Six Arrivals

Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence ( a more fast moving story )as part of this work I am including all reference in both works in this disclaimer.

I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda,

Another Fine Myth, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Babylon 5, Back To The Future, Battlestar Galactica, Bolo(Book Series), Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Captain Ron, Charmed, Catch 22, Dark Angel, Diagnosis Murder, Doctor Who, Due South, Early Edition, Farscape,

Firefly, Forever knight, Friday the 13th: The Series, Hammers Slammers (Book Series),

Highlander, Indiana Jones, Knight Rider, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Lord of the Rings, Love and Curses, MacGyver, Malcolm In The Middle, Martial Law, McHale's Navy, Mech Warrior (Game), Men In Black, Murder she wrote, Nash Bridges, Night Stalker, One Thousand and One Nights,Operation Petticoat, Painkiller Jane, Pirates of the Caribbean, Quantum Leap, Quincy, Relic Hunter, Serenity, Seven Days, Sliders, Space Above and Beyond, Special Unit 2, Star Gate SG1, Star Trek, Star wars, Terminator, The Black Company (book Series), The Dresden Files, The Final Countdown, The Incredible Hulk, The Love Boat, The Odyssey, The Pretender, The Princess Bride, The Sentinel, The Wackiest Ship In The Army, The Wizard of Oz, Time Bandits. Time Tunnel, Transformers, Twenty thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Viper, Walker: Texas Range, X-Files, Whose products I have enjoyed in the past and recommend to the reader and make no claims on.

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It was a strange day in Saint Augustine a Ship of The Line was in the harbor and a trial was underway. Near noon an odd boat sought entry to the harbor. A pilot was sent out to meet the boatload of young Greeks. The ship was a trireme something not seen in thousands of years and never in these waters. The only ones aboard the ship that could speak English, Spanish, or French were two women one of whom was in labor. The pilot singled the fort and allowed the ship to pass. The site of such an unusual ship brought attention to the harbor. Actually every ship brought attention to the harbor to some extent the town had been nearly deserted when the Spanish left, now each ship brought new English immigrants. Thanks to a little spell of Calypso's no one recognized Elizabeth Turner the spell did not even let her speak her or Will's true name. Not that women in labor used their husbands actual names, and Elizabeth's long time at sea gave her definite benefits in the field of alternate vocabulary. Tia Dalma was an excellent midwife, a bit possessive and territorial of her patient as one local medico found out. As soon as they were allowed in port she had the Greeks running all sorts of errands this gave her and Elizabeth some privacy for the actual birth. William Turner the third had a fine set of lungs. A large number of Greek (godfathers) sailors spent the night celebrating.

In the morning two more strange ships came to the port. The Dhow and the Long Ship met the harbor pilot after some language difficulties they managed to convince the pilot that they sought trade and directions. They were allowed to enter the harbor.

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The Dread Merchant Roberts

Having the best and most powerful ships in the Mediterranean the Dread Pirate Roberts found hauling and trading as profitable as piracy. His ability to navigate deep water was making him a legend. He spent a half a year crisscrossing the Mediterranean before a storm with a golden center took him elsewhere.

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Two Steps Forward One Step Back

In the three weeks since Admiral Jack's flotilla had left Saint Augustine they had covered less than a hundred miles. It was most strange the winds came out of the south or came not at all. A strong north bound current seemed to hunt them down when they tried to leave it. Their luck was not all bad twice storms put an injured merchant in their path. It was when the crabs sabotaged the water and made them put ashore that Sparrow and Barbossa became certain that it could only be the work of Calypso it did not tell them why.

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**Pinky:** Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?

**Brain:** The same thing, we do every night, try to take over the world!

Pinky and the Brain copyright Warner Brothers

It took Captain Nemo a while to realize the Indian Ocean, he now prowled was of another time and free of European influence. He found a sunken Dhow raised and repaired it and sent it into port on a recognizance mission. Three weeks later he was well on his way to formulating a plan to reshape the world when the golden storm took the Nautilus and the improvised spy ship.

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Captain William Krane was never so happy to see the southern cross as he was that night sure he was in the wrong hemisphere but at least it was the right world. Two hours later their westerly heading rewarded them with a sighting of land. They followed the coast looking for a suitable anchorage, it was awhile before they found it. When they found suitable anchorage all three ships sent landing parties ashore. Monsieur Aronnax

went with the landing party from the Lincoln to help identify flora and fauna. The crews spent time gathering resources three days later they moved north hugging what now believed to be the east coast of Africa.

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The communications officer aboard the Pacific Princess entered the CQ message as he had for ten minutes every four hours since meeting the Owen Glendower. The ten minutes were almost over. Well was grateful he was not getting the loud static he received last time he tried this. He was just getting ready to log no contact when suddenly he received a reply. His sudden surge of optimism was torpedoed by the other radio operator's next question. "What is today's date? " This communication was with another ship lost in time. The radio operators began to compare capability. Soon they established voice communications. By this time Major Boyington had received word they had made contact with Nimitz he was disappointed to find it was the USS Nimitz not the admiral. The ships began trying to compare locations. An F-18 flyover verified the proximity of the two fleets. About an hour later the fleets could see each other over the horizon. As the fleets merged out of site of the Japanese coast the Owen Glendower departed their company to make port in Nagasaki on the morning of November 30th 1866.

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It had been almost a year since Westley and Buttercup wed. Buttercup had the false marriage to the cowardly Prince Humperdinck annulled. Now many of you may believe in happily ever-ever-after, however the more cynical mind thinks in terms of politics. Humperdinck was the heir to the thrown of Florin. Buttercup was a princess of Guilder fostered in Florin to guarantee peace. A proper marriage could have cemented a lasting peace between the two kingdoms. Unfortunately Prince Humperdinck wanted peace as much as Princess Buttercup wanted Prince Humperdinck. What Prince Humperdinck truly wanted was power. Well his father had that being king and all. A war with Guilder would have placed Prince Humperdinck in command of the Armed forces of Florin and cause the king to suspend the Council of Nobles. The Council of Nobles held all taxing and budgeting authority in the kingdom during peacetime. The Council of Nobles had a dim view of some of Prince Humperdinck's expenditures. To make matters worse their high regard for the heir to the thrown was causing the Council to put pressure on the King to create a parliament. Between the wedding and Westley, Humperdinck's father almost granted their request. Humperdinck however hired new and better adviser Count DeMonnay was a master of what in sometime frames is, know as spin. The monetary irregularities were blamed on the late unlamented Count Rugen and buried along with him. The three man assault on the summer palace was made to be three thousand. As two Humperdinck act of cowardice there were not that many witnesses. All in all Humperdinck new adviser had turned things around nicely. Florin had a new and more powerful Navy and diplomatic relations with Guilder had broken down. Things were getting back on track for Prince Humperdinck.

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After hours of negotiating with the UNTFISC Captain Nathan West was in a high Earth orbit and had a much better idea about what the dimensional rift really was. There was good news and bad. The good news, their were people already working to save the Universes the bad news, the rifts would seek his ship out moving them from reality to reality for an unknown number of times. West was also feeling the effects of two many hours in the cockpit Vansen's freighter had an air lock that could take in two Hammerheads at a time. It had the supplies to service and refuel the smaller craft but the process was far from routine. The units enlisted, were trained as ground crew and had worked out a method to service the Hammerheads. Being the commander West and his wingman would be the last to stretch their legs. 2lt Phyllis Zook the Wingman in question had a project of her own she was working with the crew of the Serenity to find a docking method. Kaylee and Zook worked something out that would allow a Hammerhead to doc with the Firefly. While Zook played guinea pig to her own improvisation West continued to review options. The second ISSCV (Dropship) had docked with Little Sara (as the Wildcards dubbed the Aero-Tech 211 jump freighter) Hawkes was relieving West. The next round of rotations would utilize bays two and four not just four making things go a lot quicker. After a brief time mentally kicking himself West cleared his mind for the docking. It was not long after docking that the Rift grabbed them again.

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The Century Eagle tried to remain unnoticed in Lando Calrissian had enough on his hands. Both Ben and the Astromech droid were not taking these rifts very well. The last thing, he wanted to do right now was, meet the new neighbors. Fortunately the rift cooperated in his desire to be elsewhere. The golden rift grabbed them. Lando no longer was worrying about entertaining dinner guests he was more concerned with avoiding collision with a large moon. The Jedi burped the Droid whistled and Lando admitted he was getting to old for this.

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The Alliance police ship ChenYuan was on a routine patrol. Now that the Alliance finally acknowledged both the existence and responsibility for the Reavers patrolling for the remaining Reavers had become a major face saving measure. Fortunately the incident and resulting battle that exposed the nature of the Reavers did a good job of reducing their numbers. What the ChenYuan was not expecting were three ships that fit no know pattern. The ships warned him away stating that they were monitoring dangerous phenomena. The ships kept moving away from the ChenYuan. Then they disappeared into an area of gold colored light and magnetic interference.

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For Rich Pierce the assistant traffic controller at asteroid 511 things had not been business as usual since the start of the month a long two weeks ago. Between AI spies, disappearing squadrons, Inter-dimensional UFOs, a Chig assault, Inter- dimensional rescuers that left taking the Saratoga with them. Some say that a better understanding of your universe builds confidence. Pierce now knew that they had a Chig base and two AI operations right under their noses, that a Universe eating rift was in the neighborhood, their defenses were short a carrier, and the Chigs had shown that they had an interest in targeting the system. On the plus side Pierce knew that he only had an hour and a half left on shift. Twenty-three minutes later the rift began spitting huge space craft at him. The smallest of the ships was twice as long as a John F. Kennedy Class SCVN (Space Carrier Vehicle Nuclear). He read off the lengths as his sensors surveyed the three craft 1137 meters, 1301 meters, and 1500 meters. With the Saratoga gone and most of the asteroids small craft lost in the last battle he confronted this fleet of giants with his one last weapon his microphone. He established communications and began talking.

John Crichton was the first to make successful contact with asteroid base 511. He found negotiations to be fairly easy. After all when after years of having his back to the wall negotiating from the advantage was a real improvement. They agreed to a sort of mutual defense plan to keep traffic near their ships down to a few supply shuttles. Captains Dean Pault and Dylan Hunt and Pilot gave his plan their support. To Crichton surprise the belt minors had no problem meeting his request for coffee, chocolate, and peanut butter as well as a few earth spices.

The Inter- dimensional visitors stayed in system about six days there were no major incidents during that time. John Crichton was having a coffee with a PB&J sandwich when the rift took the three ships.

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Four ships entered a new Universe. They quickly expanded there sensor net probing the blackness of the space around them. The United Federation of Planets ship was the first to record a contact four ships moving under impulse speeds. The ships did not respond to subspace hales. Commander Vincent Tangora of the USS Helin (NCC-1692) checked with his three extra-dimensional companions before acting. The mission he took on was simple intercept the four ships and warn them away. Unfortunately no plan for peace survives contact with a determined enemy.

Shortly after a powerful electro magnetic event a ship came into the sensor range of one of the outer Cylon patrols. A human began video transmissions. He attempted to warn the Cylons of a dangerous dimensional rift. The Cylons suspected a human trick and sent large numbers of fighters wide around the flanks of the odd ship to probe for the human fleet. The Cylons grossly underestimated the sensor range of the Federation ship and had no idea that they had equipped their three companions with subspace radios. The more the ships danced and evaded the Cylons the more convinced the Cylons were that they were trying to hide the human fleet.

As the Cylon fighters became more and more spread out in an attempt to encircle (more like ensphere) the more determined the Cylons became to engage. Finally in an attempt to get the allusive humans to engage Vulpa Eleven committed his reserves on a direct assault on the communications ship. Only one raider got within range to fire its weapons which bounced harmlessly of the Helin's shields. Meanwhile a few of the spread out Cylons made contact with the three Interstellar Alliance ships. The four Nial fighters alone had the Cylons outclassed add to that three powerful ships more maneuverable then the Vipers they normally fought and you get a score of blown away raiders. To add insult to injury the human trying to communicate with them said "Please disengage or we will be forced to take hostile action." The Cylon commander ordered all units to press the attack.

Commander Vincent Tangora of the USS Helin turned to his science officer who was completing analyses of the attacking fleet. "Sir I detect no life forms aboard the fighters or the ships I believe we are facing some sort of automated defenses" said his science officer. The Helin continued to evade quite successfully while it consulted with the Interstellar Alliance ships. Delenn, Jul, and Harg agreed to go on the offensive.

When the human ship finally decided to engage it was not what Cylons expected. In an instant the federation ship was behind the Base Stars in a single pass its photons and phasers had destroyed one Base Star and damaged another. The White Star two Vree ships and four Nial fighters were closing on the remaining Base Stars. They were coming the hard way by blowing through any Cylon fighters that stud in their way.

Had Vulpa Eleven been an IL-Series his orders may have different but he was a Command Centurion and being such he ordered the damaged base star to escape and carry a warning. He stood, ready to sacrifice the rest of his command to by time. Fighters turned toward the besieged Base Stars as they were bypassed by there faster foe. Vulpa Eleven managed to anticipate the Helin's next attack covering his flak with a spread of nuclear explosions his other Base Star fell pray to the White Star's quantum-gravimetric discharge cannon.

Rather then leave the remainder of four Base Stars fighters stranded Vulpa Eleven communicated his surrender and waited.

The surrender caught the Helin by surprise almost as much as the use of a wall of nuclear explosions as a smoke screen. They had never heard of automated defenses surrendering before cautiously the extra-dimensional ships went back to a strategy of evade and negotiate.

Vulpa Eleven soon found he was not fighting the foe he had been after. Thou some appeared human they were extra-dimensional in origin free from the Edict of Extermination he could negotiate in aims of avoiding an unwinnable interdimensional war.

By the time things had clamed down to a mutual acknowledgment of oops sorry about that the one remaining Cylon Base Star had recovered every fighter that could be fit aboard. It was then that all of the former belligerents were whisked away by the next portal.

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The SGC teams entered their forth universe in this universe they were immediately hailed and greeted by a remote control relay probe. At first it warned them of the rift as a navigational hazard after a few repetitions. The probe relayed direct communication from Star Fleet Headquarters to the visitors in the rift. Dr. Daniel Jackson began a formal apology for the inconvenience. Starfleet reported the recent activities and problems caused by the rift. As they sealed the rift that brought them there Jackson gave his assurances that they would do everything in their power to return the lost ships.

The Miranda-class starship USS Takao was sent to accompany the three SGC vessels they also brought additional supplies. Three days later four ships were moved onto another universe.

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Dresden, Murphy, Mai, the two wardens, and the SG team found themselves in a seemingly endless mass of tents stalls and booths. "Keep your mouths shut and let me do all the talking, and if you value your life don't touch anything, said Mai. They moved through a diverse population (kind of think of the cantina seen in star wars add to that a full meeting of the Babylon 5s Interstellar Alliance and throw in D&D monster manual for good measure and you get an idea of what I mean by diverse). Mia traded one of the cans of kippered herring to a passing demon for directions as they walked on she explained. "The dimension we are currently in is called Deva, it is inhabited by a race called Deveels. Deveels are merchants and traders without equal. We are in the Bazaar on Deva where Deveels trade. Here you can find any conceivable magikal device or artifact and a few that may well be inconceivable. Trading is a round-the-clock affair the Bazaar is always open. But be warned if you think you have gotten a fair deal from a Deveel then I have some bottom land in Atlantis to sell you."

Half a days walk later they came to the door of M.Y.T.H. Inc.

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	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence ( a more fast moving story )as part of this work I am including all reference in both works in this disclaimer.

I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda,

Another Fine Myth, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Babylon 5, Back To The Future, Battlestar Galactica, Bolo(Book Series), Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Captain Ron, Charmed, Catch 22, Dark Angel, Diagnosis Murder, Doctor Who, Due South, Early Edition, Farscape,

Firefly, Forever knight, Friday the 13th: The Series, Hammers Slammers (Book Series),

Highlander, Indiana Jones, Knight Rider, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Lord of the Rings, Love and Curses, MacGyver, Malcolm In The Middle, Martial Law, McHale's Navy, Mech Warrior (Game), Men In Black, Murder she wrote, Nash Bridges, Night Stalker, One Thousand and One Nights,Operation Petticoat, Painkiller Jane, Pirates of the Caribbean, Quantum Leap, Quincy, Relic Hunter, Serenity, Seven Days, Sliders, Space Above and Beyond, Special Unit 2, Star Gate SG1, Star Trek, Star wars, Terminator, The Black Company (book Series), The Dresden Files, The Final Countdown, The Incredible Hulk, The Love Boat, The Odyssey, The Pretender, The Princess Bride, The Sentinel, The Wackiest Ship In The Army, The Wizard of Oz, Time Bandits. Time Tunnel, Transformers, Twenty thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Viper, Walker: Texas Range, X-Files, Whose products I have enjoyed in the past and recommend to the reader and make no claims on.

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A Voyage of Convergence

Chapter Seven Conversations

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"It is a fine healthy boy, do his father proud," said Tia Dalma. "Thank you Tia," said Elizabeth. "No thanking me got to keep our Captain happy, not good to have the Dutch Man in crazy hands. Now we must be away from here before some find out who you be," said Tia Dalma. "How shall we travel," asked Elizabeth. "Rest now little mother the baby sleeps and there are fine ships in the harbor. I will be back at night fall" said Tia Dalma.

Three Dhows and a tall ship made port that day at Saint Augustine. As of late the harbor pilot and customs crew were getting used to the odd traffic. Stories were circulating of a strange storm that was moving ships through time. Though far from linguistically challenged he was relieved to hear the captain of the Avenger slightly accented English. It was an odd ship, nonetheless her lines were sleek and fast like a war ship but she carried no cannon. In place of the cannon were an odd assortment of catapults, ballista, and other implements of destruction. The cargo she carried was very Mediterranean olive oil, grain, wine and wide verity of hand crafted items. "So what do you call the flag you sail under," asked the harbor pilot. "It is the flag of Guilder" said Captain Roberts. "I have never heard of this Guilder," complained the harbor pilot. "Then I am more lost than I thought," complained Captain Roberts. Roberts went into a long tail of being lost at sea and the strange lands he had visited carefully omitting all acts of piracy. It was not until he visited the captains chart room that the harbor pilot would give his fantastic tale the benefit of the doubt and admitted the ship. The three Dhow and their mostly African crews were another matter. Captain Roberts was able to provide a few translators.

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Admiral Jack's flotilla had entered a small bay off the Florida cost to take on water and other provisions the foraging party was highly successful and relatively uneventful, except for the one poor unfortunate man that tried to collect fresh water from the pool of a sixteen foot long mother gator. However when they tried to leave the bay they found a sand bar blocked their way. Work parties tried to dredge a channel to the sea complained of fish and crabs moving sand back in when they tried to dig it out. Barbossa was sitting alone on a tree stump when she assumed the form of Tia Dalma and came walking out of the mangroves. "Hello Captain Barbossa," said Calypso. "Hello ma lady," said Barbossa. "You probably wish to know why I am keeping you here," said Calypso. "The thought has crossed my mind a time or two," said Barbossa. "Let me say I will be going were you be going but I will need five more days to be ready, my children will take away the sandbar then. Were you are going there is something that you do not seek that must be dealt with. I will be with you then," said Calypso. She then walked back into the briny swamp and disappeared.

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"Captain do you have any idea were we are now," asked the fist mate?

"From all of our observations over the past few days I dare to venture we re off the coast of what in our world is called the American state of Georgia. This is a land that has yet to see the European scourge," said Captain Nemo.

"What are your plans Captain," asked the fist mate?

"For now we live off the sea, somehow I feel a revelation will find us soon," said Nemo.

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"I feel the best course is to head north along the coast is until we reach some sort of settlement," stated Commander Farragut.

"I concur but I worry what form of civilization we will find," said Monsieur Aronnax.

"I can't help but agree and thinking of what we may face, I believe you may wish to make use of some of my cargo," said Captain Krane.

"What sort of cargo might that be," asked Farragut.

"Well I was hauling a load of weapons to a country in South America and have enough guns and ammo for a small war in my hold," said Krane.

And so it was, that a small contingent of sailors and marines were transferred to the Mystic Lady to learn the fine points of use of Springfield Rifles, Thomson Submachine Guns, and various fully automatic weapons designed by a man named Browning.

Three days later they found a small port called Marca.

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The Florin Armada had assembled at port in the southern Florin. Prince Humperdinck met with his Admirals aboard his flag ship. "Admiral Mead and I have developed a plan that should insure a quick and efficient conquest of Guilder. I will turn the meeting over to Admiral Mead to go over the details," said Prince Humperdinck.

"Gentlemen three months ago you all received rather standard patrol orders, orders that had only one thing in common your last port. So here we all are at that last port. Two months ago we began routing most military purchases through this port increasing the local buying power and causing so local inflation. We also began the purchase of a number of articles starting with barrels and moving progressively more perishable goods. Three weeks ago General Perry began the annual large forces maneuvers just west of here. Two weeks ago we replaced the local ports master of revenue. At the same time Commodore Bourbon and his squadron of frigates began enforcing a simple policy: all ships were encouraged to come to port and none was to leave. Because of the high volume of trade we had encouraged earlier, plus several ships contracted directly to bring cargo to this port, we rapidly began sequestering a large number of merchantmen in this port. The most important part of the plan is operational security. We have assembled the men ships and equipment for the invasion of Guilder in absolute secrecy. Over the next two days we will load all ships and depart. No one leaves town no one leaves port. Security is paramount. Commodore Wine you will be in charge of the merchantmen you have been given a cadre to make sure any merchant captain who does not cooperate is quickly relieved. Once we are underway Commodores Bourbon and Mescal will use their frigate squadrons as our advance Scouts. Admiral Schnapps' task force will protect the logistics fleet and will be third in command if anything happens to Prince Humperdinck and me on the flagship. Captain Rye will provide the rear guard," explained Admiral Mead.

"Remember we have three times the fleet as Guilder. You have been training hard and long so we have an advantage of quality at sea. On land they can bring more men to bear so we must strike quickly and decisively. If so, none will stand against us," concluded Prince Humperdinck (who had practiced the speech for hours last night and was most relieved not to have screwed it up).

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"Here we have the latest recognizance pictures. You will note we have made several observations of the land mass to the north. If you look at the high altitude photos you will see it is one of two large islands. We know from the night sky that this world is fairly far from the timelines we have visited previously but the residents appear human, at least from long range photos. From long range photos of signage we believe they may well speak English. The technology is pre-industrial put is more advanced in some areas and anachronistic in others. It is almost as if the renaissance without the discovery of gunpowder. Of course this is mostly conjecture drawn from long range and high altitude photographic evidence, lectured UNTFISC agent Fox Mulder.

"We need some solid intelligence as well as whatever native navigational charts we can find. We have no Idea how long we will be here. We may need to interact with the locals for supplies. There is also the possibility that whatever has caused us to be here is currently here. I am looking for any suggestions on how we should proceed, said Captain Harry Blake.

"We are currently fifty miles from this port on the southern coast, said Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale as he pointed to a spot the projected aerial photo. "We could send a team in there to make friends and get the lay of the land," McHale continued.

"We probably would best not use one of the powered ships, all the native vessels we have seen so far are either sail or oar powered. Any powered boat would attract too much attention," commented UNTFISC agent Dana Scully.

"The Kiwi is probably the best choice for the mission; she is a good old fashion wooden sailing ship. And we have done covert operations before," volunteered Major Simon Butcher.

"Wait just a minute! We are dealing with a non firearms culture here. Most of are people are used to thinking in terms of guns and firepower. We need to be able to deal with hostile force based around a different technological base. We need people on this mission that can deal with that kind of treat without revealing are own technology!" said Dr. Emmett Brown.

"A most valid point," concurred Mulder.

"Alright I think we have the basis for a plan, lets take a break and then begin working out the details," said Captain Harry Blake.

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"This is King on the Little Sara all units report" broadcasted Captain West.

West soon had all his people accounted for the Serenity was also still with them. The geography of the planet ahead of them left no doubt they were heading to some parallel earth. What was unknown was what sort of parallel earth.

"This is King I am sending a set of course corrections these will take us into Earth orbit," broadcasted West. "Lieutenant Lewis take the helm and have your people scan the radio frequencies see if you can find out anything," ordered West before leaving the bridge.

They had a long trip ahead of them, it was time to talk to the two that claimed to be Vansen and Damphouss.

West entered the cabin with the two prisoners and dismissed the guard. He looked at the two women they certainly looked like Vansen and Damphousse.

After a few silent moments Shane Vansen went on a verbal offence. "All right West, are you going to stand there gawking. Let me cut through the bull. I am me but you want me to prove it, asked Vansen.

"That pretty well sums things up, stated West.

Vansen began, "Ok then, here is the whole crazy story: We landed hard but we landed it not something we walked away from, we woke in a sort of improvised hospital. The Chigs wanted live prisoners and the AIs were providing. Damphousse and I were the only live humans handy so they were trying to keep us alive. They had a Florence unit a dam nursing AI. I will never forget her little cherry words of encouragement gems like; 'I was built to relieve pain life, is pain' and 'don't die I will lose my bonus.' After two weeks of her expert care they moved me to a cell. Three weeks later Damphousse joined me. They were just getting ready to hand us over when this alien shows up."

"A Chig," interrupted West.

"No, she was an air breather humanoid, purple with pointy ears and a tail. Very humanoid if it was not for the ears, tail and purple skin color you might think she was human. She came across as like some sort of cute little air head. The AIs did not know what to make of her. They did not know how she got there she simply showed up. Worse still she had this way of manipulating probability," said Vansen.

"What the hell dose that mean," asked West.

"Ever here of Schrödinger's cat," asked Damphousse?

"Sure," said West.

"Ok, well to this purple girl, the box was transparent," stated Damphousse?

After hearing that explanation West just stood there looking confused.

Vansen took over, "You know how the AI respond to the take a chance virus."

"Yes," said West?

"The girl had been there for almost three months and everyday the AIs flipped a coin on weather or not to dissect her at least three times a day," explained Vansen.

"How is this significant," asked West?

"Well the AIs decided to try cards instead of coins or dice. So I wound up playing poker they did not want the little purple girl anywhere near the cards. The AIs kept upping the ante. I wound up winning our freedom the ship and the intel on a Chig raid. I came here to warn you. This ship was supposed to evacuate some AI fighters after the raid. That is why the ship is carrying what it is," finished Vansen.

"What was the wining hand," asked West?

"Strait flush diamonds queen high," supplied Damphousse.

"You expect me to believe this," asked West?

"Not really but it is true," answered Vansen.

"I recommended that we lie, it would not have taken much imagination to come up with something far more believable then the truth," added Damphousse.

"So what happened to the alien," asked West?

"She had us leave after we won the ship. She said that she would catch up with us later," replied Vansen.

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About eighty meters above the pock-marked sphere Lando managed to counter both his downward momentum and the moons gravity. In fact he achieved a very low orbit of the airless rock. About twelve miles later he needed to adjust his altitude a bit to avoid a mountain. The humans did not notice the pretty blue planet that the moon orbited until they had reached a high enough orbit that said moon no longer represented a navigational hazard. The Droid however did not allow little matters like survival to distract it from multitasking. It was running a board scan of various frequencies it found an interesting transmission and ran it through the Century Eagle's translation software. By the time the humans were admiring this water planet one of the secondary displays revealed a two dimensional image of a bearded human saying, "This is the condition chamber with lupine lightning generator on CNN information." Fortunately the translation got better as more data was analyzed. The Droid also found some stars similar to the last two locations.

They elected to leave the orbit of the moon to head toward the planet at a gentile pace. Somewhere behind them, the rift activated again. Three ships emerged from the rift. The rift discharged these travelers along the same axis of travel as the Eagle's rout. One of the ships disappeared while the two other ships attempted to establish communications with the Eagle. After a short period of difficulty they established communications between ships.

Aboard the Forlorn Hope Apollo and Sheba had the bridge when Commodore Ross's voice came over the radio: "Our star maps show this to be planet Earth our home world but the planetary positions indicate an earlier time. We have been analyzing broadcasts from the planet. I guess Captain Mudd's engineer's theory about parallel dimensions fits the evidence we never had a nuclear aircraft carrier disappear at this time in our history," said Ross.

"So this is Earth in this universe. It is beautiful," said Sheba. "I am recording all stellar information it may help us find Earth in our universe," replied Apollo.

Aboard the Century Eagle Lando asked Ben, "Are you feeling any better?"

"I am getting used to it now, that first jump was like loosing an arm all the others were like changing hats. It is like the force is different or not presenting these other Universes," said Ben.

"I am getting almost no readings for midichlorians in these other universes," stated Lando.

"And yet I still feel a presence out there it is just different enough that I do not trust to open myself to it," continued Ben.

The Bounty uncloaked and rejoined the motley fleet. Two hours later the four ships passed through another rift.

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The Alliance police ship ChenYuan spent sometime monitoring the area after its three mysterious visitors disappeared. Not finding much the ChenYuan left the area ten hours later. So there was no native observer as the three huge ships came out of the rift. John Crichton for one was relieved.

Aeryn asked John," Why are you so happy?"

John continued working with pilot to monitor as much information on the system as possible. He answered Aeryn's question as he worked. "I am happy because I do not have to make a first impression, I have really lousy luck with first impressions, said Crichton.

Aeryn merely smiled and nodded.

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Craig McDonald the lead traffic controller at asteroid 511 was having a quite day. He no longer had the extra dimensional support but he was now less worried about a Chig attack a British cruiser squadron had entered the system escorting a supply convoy with replacements for the bases losses.

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Five ships entered a new Universe. They quickly expanded their sensor net, probing the blackness of the space around them. "How long will we continue to be dragged along by these rifts," Vulpa Eleven asked?

"We are following a path to a probe; the probe should have the answers on how to get back to our home dimensions. The probe should also tell us how to shut the rifts down before they destroy our universes," said Delenn.

"Is the subset of universes to be traveled a finite number," Vulpa Eleven asked?

"According to Jul the probe only reopened the rifts when it found its goal," answered Delenn with far less confidence in the pronouncement then when she heard it from Jul.

"It seams the more I ask for answers the more variables I collect," said Vulpa Eleven.

"There are some who say that anyone who thinks they have all the variables has not fully examined the problem," said Delenn.

"My function is military unfortunately decisions must be made with the best currently available information," said Vulpa Eleven automatically. After a brief moment of reflection the golden colon continued, "I see now that recent events do tend to prove your point."

"Going beyond ones preconceptions is the first step in the path to wisdom," said Delenn.

"I may need some assistance in negotiating this path," said Vulpa.

"It is a solitary path but I will help were I can," said Delenn.

"Thank you, I shall place myself and my command at your disposal for the duration of this mission," said Vulpa.

"I am most honored by your trust," said Delenn.

"By your command," said Vulpa.

The five ships continued to study their current universe and the large chunk of dark matter that they were orbiting for two more days before catching the next rift.

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The USS Takao, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria emerged into the aftermath of a battle. The Takao, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria took up defensive positions while the Nina closed the rift behind them. They continued the sensor sweeps of the area recording information about the current universe and trying to piece together the recent events in this former battle field.

"We believe there was more than one battle in the area. The crew of the Takao has identified some of the weapons damage as done by Federation weapon types. There is also evidence of some of damage by some unknown weapons type. The battles seem to be a bit one-sided with a numerically superior local defender attacking a technically superior force. We believe the defenders to be some type of cybernetic beings. The crew of the Takao have rescued a few of the Cylons as they call themselves. These robots seam sentient but uncooperative," said Daniel Jackson.

"What makes you say these Cylons attacked first", asked Vala Mal Doran.

"We have been able to recover memory records from some of the more badly damaged Cylons. From what we have been able to reconstruct the Cylons were involved in a war of genocide with the local humans. The Cylons were in pursuit of a refuge human fleet. The refuges made a series of raids to cover their movements. The Cylons lost a patrol in this general area to some feeing raiders. The Cylons sent out a second patrol in an attempt to find out what had happened to first. The Cylon patrol encounter something that easily evaded them. We believe this was the Bounty. The same patrol later ran into a group of fighters and was eliminated. The Cylon commander believed all this was native human activity and concentrated his forces in this area for a coup de grace. What they ran into instead was a group of ships that had the USS Helin with them. From the communications from the Helin they identified the ship as human and attacked," recapped Colonel Samantha Carter.

"So let me get this strait, you telling me have a race of genocidal human hating robots that attacked a group of inter-dimensional travelers out of mistaken identity," asked Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell

"That is it according to the information we have so far," said Carter.

"I hope we get out of this crazy universe before we are attacked by the Keystone Cops," said Mitchell.

A day later they left that universe without further incident.

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It was a nice quite day. Aahz was quietly enjoying the comfort of his new easy chair he was not expecting company. Much to his irritation there came a knocking at his door. He hit the remote on his chair to look at the annoyance on his security viewer. He was pleasantly surprised to see a Deveel in a hazmat suite. What made the surprise pleasant was the letters on the hazmat suite that said, "Mother Noksuckess' Pervish Food Emporium Restaurant and delicatessen. Still Aahz was suspicious. To Aahz it was not paranoia. Having someone out to get you was a measure of success. Besides as a Pervect he had an image to maintain. So over the intercom Aahz challenged the delivery Deveel with a gruff, "Who are you and what do you want."

Now delivering Pervish within the Bazaar may not have been the best job in the Bazaar but oddly enough it paid well. Sure Pervects were hard negotiators even by Deveel standards. Oddly enough Mother Noksuckess and the five other purveyors of Pervish Food in the Bazaar were all owned by Pervects. Pervect chefs tended to avoid being hired by Deveels so the Pervects managed to establish a sort of cartel on Pervish Food. This was added to by the firm desire of other shop owners not to be downwind of any sort of Pervish eatery. Their profits guaranteed by a steady stream of dimensionally mobile Pervects and the fact that it was considered a hazardous duty, the job paid better then most food delivery jobs on Deva. Still most deliveries involved one of free general types: A home sick but still argumentative Pervect trying to renegotiate the price, someone trying to order Pervish food as a prank, or mad wizards or mad scientists trying to create weapons of mass destruction. Therefore all deliveries to non-Pervects were prepaid and all CODs were on a no negotiation fix price menu. Still it was odd for someone else to send a Prevect a prepaid order. Aahz's gruff Pervish greeting put the Deveel back on familiar ground. "My name is Jerzee I deliver for Mother Noksuckess' Pervish Food Emporium Restaurant and delicatessen," said the Deveel in the yellow suite.

"Who sent you, I placed no order, and I am not about to pay your prices for delivery," said Aahz.

"The order has been prepaid. I have a note," said the Jerzee.

The Deveel quickly passed a note though the mail slot.

Aahz read the note:

Hello Aahz

Ersatz and I were passing through town. WE did not have time to stop by so we sent you this with our respects.

Sincerely

Calypsa

With this Aahz yelled "So why didn't you just say so," and accepted the large piping hot triple sealed biohazard container.

The Deveel did not expect a tip but then the eighteen percent mandatory gratuity had been prepaid anyway.

Aahz found an out of the way room to open his feast, he knew the others would not be able to use that room for a while so it was best to use a relatively unimportant room for his dining. The aroma was fantastic (and deadly to over thirty-five species) neither the taste nor the quantity were lacking Aahz was in gastronomic heaven. Aahz finished his food before any of it escaped. Aahz was in a rarely good mood as he returned to his easy chair.

About three hours later there was another knock on the door. A quick look at the security viewer showed two large familiar men in expertly tailored suits.

"Hello Guido, hello Nunzio let yourselves in. Nobody is here but me," said Aahz.

Guido and Nunzio entered the building and caught a trace odor. "You have a body that needs disposing Aahz," asked Nunzio.

"No just a simple home cooked meal from the deli," said Aahz.

Guido quickly found a can of industrial strength air purifier potion and made use of it.

"Aahz since when do you buy take-out," asked Guido?

"When someone else pays," replied Aahz.

Guido and Nunzio unpacked their luggage having just returned from an out of town job. Aahz returned to taking full advantage of his brand new easy chair.

Moments later there was a loud knock on the door. A quick look at the security viewer showed a large amount of green. A familiar but powerful voice said, "Big Crunch here for lunch." A seductive soprano added, "anybody home?"

"Just me, Guido and Nunzio come on in," said Aahz.

Chumley and Tanda quickly entered. The large troll and his sexy sister entered the office and made themselves at home.

"Aahz, it is good to see you again my good Pervect," said Chumley with a far more cultivated accent than he used on the other side of the door.

"Good to see you and Tanda too, What brings you two to Deva," asked Aahz?

"What brings any one to the Bazaar? The dreaded curse of acquisition, the lure of crass commercialism, the endless quest for the not quite unattainable," lamented the Troll as he placed a collection of boxes, bags, and assorted other packages on a now heavily burdened table.

"We have been shopping, one of my cousins is getting married so we came to the Bazaar to find a wedding gift" said Tanda.

"You my dear sister have been shopping, I on the other hand have been schlepping and for far more then one gift," said Chumley.

Tanda explained, "Well when I said I was going to the Bazaar mom asked me to pick something up for her and then Aunt Rose also wished for…"

"Suffice it to say that we have a large family and mom insisted I escort my sister," politely interrupted Chumley.

They all talked old times for a while and of course it came to the inevitable subject of Skeeve.

Aahz was trying to get passed the issue with his usual bluster. When Tanda got to the heart of the matter by saying simply, "I know he needs the room to grow but I miss him too."

Further comment was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Harry double checked the address and knocked on the door.

A powerful rumbling answered, "Who there?"

"Hello, I am Harry Dresden…" said Dresden.

"Go way we no want any," rumbled the voice from behind the door."

"I was come from a far-off distant dimension. I was recommended by an Archer from Archiah," said the desperate Dresden.

The door shook with the question "Archaih, how old?"

"Very, seemed ancient but spry when he needed to be'" answered Dresden.

"He gave me this," said Dresden as he held a business card to the door.

"Big Crunch let them in," said another voice.

The door opened slowly a large green arm attached to an even larger green troll moved the door slowly to the full open position.

"In," said the troll.

Dresden, Murphy, Mai, the two wardens, and the SG team entered a room of considerably larger size then the outside of the structure would have indicted as possible, even the troll was larger then the outside of the building would normally allow. Mai took the lead and said," don't embarrass me by gawking this is the Bazaar extra-dimensional construction is the norm."

The troll said, "Card" and held out an open green palm (No not a palm tree but a hand large enough to wrap around the truck of one).

Dresden placed both his card and the one given to him by the Archer in the palm.

The Troll moved into the next room and announced, "Wizard named Harry to see Aahz."

They entered to see a green scaly creature with far too many long sharp pointy teeth seated in a sort of high-tech thrown. With two large men in expensive suites standing on his flanks.

Murphy whispered, "Oz?"

"Harry," Mumbled Guido.

Simultaneously Aahz and Harry said, "No relation!"


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence ( Chicago Convergence.htm a more fast moving story ) as part of this work I am including all references in both works in this disclaimer.

I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda,

Another Fine Myth, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Babylon 5, Back To The Future, Battlestar Galactica, Bolo(Book Series), Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Captain Ron, Charmed, Catch 22, Dark Angel, Diagnosis Murder, Doctor Who, Due South, Early Edition, Farscape, Firefly, Forever knight, Friday the 13th: The Series, Hammers Slammers (Book Series), Highlander, Indiana Jones, Knight Rider, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Lord of the Rings, Love and Curses, MacGyver, Malcolm In The Middle, Martial Law, McHale's Navy, Mech Warrior (Game), Men In Black, Murder she wrote, Nash Bridges, Night Stalker, One Thousand and One Nights,Operation Petticoat, Painkiller Jane, Pirates of the Caribbean, Quantum Leap, Quincy, Relic Hunter, Serenity, Seven Days, Sliders, Space Above and Beyond, Special Unit 2, Star Gate SG1, Star Trek, Star wars, Terminator, The Black Company (book Series), The Dresden Files, The Final Countdown, The Incredible Hulk, The Love Boat, The Odyssey, The Pretender, The Princess Bride, The Sentinel, The Wackiest Ship In The Army, The Wizard of Oz, Time Bandits. Time Tunnel, Transformers, Twenty thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Viper, Walker: Texas Range, X-Files, Whose products I have enjoyed in the past and recommend to the reader and make no claims on.

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A Voyage of Convergence

Chapter Eight Conflicts

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Admiral Thomas Grison was the current acting Governor of Eastern Florida he would hold the position for one more month, maybe less, he hoped. The official Governor was on his way from England. As far as Grison was concerned it could not be too soon.

The Spanish had left the area nearly de-populated when they ceded the area to the British. English entrepreneurs were quick to capitalize on the situation buying up Spanish homes and farms for pennies.

The entrepreneurs however soon found they had more land then could farm and were looking for labor. When the strange foreign ships started showing up the land owners saw the hand of providence. They kept seeking Admiral Grison's aid in plans to impress the heathen sailors into agrarian pursuits. Currently the Admiral had one ship of the line and two frigates in port. He could defiantly muster enough force to honor their request but he saw their request as less then honorable.

The entrepreneurs tried to suggest that some of the over crewed merchantmen were pirates. Grison countered that evidence was lacking. He also pointed out that the ships in question also lacked firearms.

A few of the locals preferred the sailors as sailors. They were the ones running the local pubs. The sailors were steady customers. Oddly enough these strange sailors that fell out of time had coin in their pocket, gold and silver minted by unknown or long dead kingdoms but gold and silver nonetheless. The Captains of these ships negotiated in advance with the money changers and issued pay a bit at a time. The ships were something, but nobody knew quite what. Everybody had a rumor no two seemed to have the same story.

The Captains of the sailors that fell out of time had some idea. There was one who knew call her midwife, witch, demon, priestess, or goddess she was the one who knew. And she was the one who told the Captains to bide their time.

The landholders did not know why the strange lot lingered only that many strong backs stayed just beyond their reach. That night on a remote beach, the landholders they made plans of there own. They made their plans in secret and did not notice the small witnesses that scurried into the sea. However eyes and antenna witnessed the event, and she who knew, knew their plans.

The next day, a large French merchantman made port carrying a verity of goods. Later that day a young mother babe in arms stalked the captain of that ship. In a quite place two young Greeks politely asked the French Captain to visit the young mother. "Bonjour

Capitaine Chevalle," said Elizabeth. "Mademoiselle you have mistaken me for someone else perhaps," said Chevalle.

"I think not," said Elizabeth as she stepped into the light.

"I beg your pardon Madame one cannot be too careful. I am doing something new. Piracy was less then profitable under the current political situations so I put my money into a good strong merchant ships and a well documented new identity along with staying out of ports were I am known and voyez un négociant honnête," said Chevalle.

"Well honest merchant or not you are about to be undone by treachery," said Elizabeth.

"And how do you know this my lady King," asked Chevalle.

From out of the shadows Tia Dalma appeared, "Because my children hear dem talking," said Tia Dalma.

"Vous!" Said the Frenchman.

"Et qui autrement il serait," replied Tia Dalma.

Raining in his shock Chevalle rallied himself to ask the question, "So what treachery do we face?"

The two women filled him in on landholders and their plans.

Elizabeth and Tia Dalma had many other meetings that night.

The next day things went pretty much as what pasted for normal in the little town. About five PM things began to change. The pubs were to quite as the town waited for dusk.

That night the landholders and a few picked men moved with muffled ores each dingy towed another small boat loaded with gunpowder and incendiaries. Their targets were the four Dhows and two tall ships at anchor in the harbor another group would fire the trireme and the long ship pulled ashore.

At the same time, from another shore, swimmers slipped into the water.

A few events not odd in and of themselves began to unfold: a pod of dolphins entered the bay, a fog rolled in, and crabs began to come ashore.

The different groups of landholders and their targets had varying degrees of success in their attempts at arson. On land the group that sought the long ship had an un-opposed success, while those who sought the trireme found it missing. In the bay the results were similarly asymmetric. The boat targeting the Dhow nearest the fort arrived at its target early. The boat targeting the oldest and least seaworthy Dhow had no problem reaching his target. The boats targeting two other Dhows kept being pushed off course until they found themselves closing on English Frigates Fox Hound and Terrier. The boats targeting the French merchantman had a similar navigational dysfunction and found itself nearing the British Seventy-Four gun Ship of the Line Cerberus. The boat targeting the Avenger proved very sluggish falling short of its target at the appointed time.

Three of the operations went off like clockwork simultaneously with two Dhows and a Viking Long Ship illuminating the night. Then the landholders plan became undone. The dolphins that had quietly pushing the boats of course began leaping and raising a general ruckus. A fourth pillar of flames appeared as the Avenger targeted its delayed attacker with Alchemists' Fire. The skeleton crews guarding the Royal Navy ship spotted the boats headed toward them and moved to defend themselves. On the opposite side of the ships armed swimmers scaled the sides.

The garrison rallied as the first ships burst into flame seeing little more then bright glows through the fog the Commander sent sailors and marines to the long boats. They found their boats either missing or filled with crabs.

Cannons rang out against the boats of the arsonists three more pillars of fire gave proof to the training of the English gunners. Then the swimmers attacked the crews now in melee long boats and a trireme brought Pirates, Greeks, and Vikings into the fray. While the majority of Admiral Grison's forces battled crustaceans the harbor emptied of ships. Later that evening the fog lifted to reveal an abandoned trireme.

Aboard her stolen flag ship the King of the Pirates nursed her child.

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True to her word the sand bar disappeared and Admiral Jack's flotilla returned to the sea.

"Do you think she is over being angry at the brethren," asked Admiral Sparrow.

"Well I am the one who freed her," said Captain Barbossa.

"And such beautiful weather that brought us," quipped Sparrow.

"It was what we needed to win the battle," said Barbossa.

"She was as mad at the Jones as she was with us. We just did a better job of not dying, "said Sparrow.

"If were not for her, we both would still be dead," argued Barbossa.

"Yes, dead, been there done that, and I have no wish to repeat the experience," complained Sparrow.

Suddenly their discussion was interrupted by a call of "Sail! Ho! Off the port side!" From high in the rigging.

Admiral Sparrow pulled out a spy glass and looked to port.

Captain Barbossa pulled out a somewhat larger telescope and looked in the same direction.

Ragetti pulled out an even larger set of binoculars. This was strange. Not only were the big binoculars a bit expensive for a lonely seaman to possess. In addition the thin scraggly beanpole of a pirate had only one real eye and was pointing the powerful optics in the wrong direction.

"Two Frigates and a Ship Of the Line, an East Indiaman, an oversized Brigantine, and two Dhow and they have the wind at their backs," declared Barbossa.

"A strange lot still too far to see what flag their flying, but that Ship Of the Line looks like it's an English build, you think your lady friend led us into a trap," asked Sparrow?

Time passed and despite the best efforts of Admiral Jack and his flotilla the distance closed. Barbossa once again took his glass to the pursuers, "The East Indiaman is French, I have never seen the flag that the Brigantine and the Dhow are flying, and the Frigates and a Ship Of the Line are flying Elizabeth's standard," said Barbossa.

"Elizabeth! With a Ship of The Line, I think we were safer with the British, they never killed me," said Sparrow indignantly.

"You my Admiral were the one who voted her King of the Pirates," said Barbossa. The two fleets met, and there was great rejoicing.

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Nemo looked at the data and the maps he gathered. He scratched his head for a moment and let out a long sigh. After a long time starring at the charts he devised an experiment. It took them quite a wile to construct the many small floating globes. At the same time, they printed and numbered the messages to be placed within them. Finally they set a course due south leaving a trail of globes behind them. Two days into the experiment the rift whisked them away.

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It was two days out of Marca the with a fare wind the Prospect and the USS Abraham Lincoln were making good way under sail. The Mystic Lady steamed along stoically as they moved along with the coast visible on the horizon. It was about noon when the wind changed and Prospect began to beat up wind and the Lincoln went to steam. It was not long there after that they spotted their first fire its long trail of smoke rising from an inland hill. A mile or so later they spotted another.

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Aasim waited his scouts had spotted sails it had been a month since the last time the single fires were used a month of fishing, digging clams and tending gardens. The local ships avoided his little island village. All the local ships avoided this island but one clan of merchants run by his father's brother. All the local ships had to take a longer route. Any local ships that did not or any outsider that came this way, fell pray to pirates. When his men spotted sail they lit the single fires this gave them time to rally the boats. They would be ready by the time the interloper came into view.

He saw the smoke of a single fire out at sea long before he saw a sail. He wondered at this was it some trick or was the fool foreigner trying to single back at the fires. Things only became more peculiar.

At first it seemed as Allah was being most kind to his humble servant Aasim as he stilled the mid-afternoon wind. Swiftly Aasim and his men launched their flotilla of small boats. Aasim kept one eye on a hill were one of the village elders sat with some sharp eyed youngsters a group of colored sheets would single their observations. As they rowed out the sheets made less and less sense. Three ships were spotted, not the two sails first reported, not the one sail reported later but three ships. Aasim considered this a good sign, ships were probably scattered and could be picked off separately as soon as they came into view he would pick the best target.

Aasim could now see two separate pillars of smoke he was making good speed the three ships were getting closer faster than could be accounted for by his rowing. The ships were also in a tighter formation than he thought. The odd ships were turning and getting ready to move to deeper water and go around the seaward side of the island. He began to position his boats to intercept.

The strange ships were moving with no sails or oars visible. The ships were huge he quickly picked the closest ship, it had the lowest freeboard.

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In the heat of the mid-afternoon sun the Mystic Lady had taken the becalmed Prospect in tow. The USS Abraham Lincoln steamed along a good distance off the starboard side of the Mystic Lady's stern. They spotted the fleet of small boats as they began their turn around the island. A quick glance at the determined and heavily armed boatman was enough to convince Commander Farragut that these were not friendly natives out to say hello. From their dress he assumed they were some sort of Arab he had seen there like on Middle Eastern voyages in his own world. He had one man aboard the ship, that spent enough time in that part of the world, to pick up a working knowledge of the language.

Normally the Mystic Lady could easily avoid the rowers, as could the Lincoln, but not with the Prospect in Tow. It became the duty of the Abraham Lincoln as the only military ship present to protect the civilians.

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Once Aasim had selected the target he trusted to Allah and his captains to do the rest. Aasim had little control over boats other then his own. His boat was the largest but not the fastest, it was up to others to run down their pray. Once the deck crews were fighting boarders most ships slowed in the past. The Infidels shouted threats and warned them to advance only one boat. His boats rowed on. The strange ship with fire on board let out a blood curdling sheik. A few of the boats faltered the rest rowed on. Then there was a sound like thunder and a large splash in front of the lead boat noise makers and catapults he thought. He saw no catapult just a large smoking tube his men's courage did not falter.

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The heathens came on undeterred by his warning shot. The attackers were already shooting ranging shots with arrows, when Commander Farragut gave the order.

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It took but a moment for Aasim's world to end with a wave of fire and smoke the carnage claimed his men and boats. Allah in his grace spared Aasim and his boat along with the two slowest boats. Smaller fires like chains of thunder came from the ship from hell killing more. The demon ship moved on, its steady rumbling fading, leaving three small boats searching for the living amid the blood and wreckage. Three boats loaded with wounded returned to a village bereaved.

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Commander Farragut only half new what he unleashed when he gave the order he seen before what canister could do what surprised him was that the carnage had not stopped the automatic weapons bringing a second wave of death that only ended when he gave the order to cease fire. Commander Farragut looked at the ashen face of Monsieur Aronnax only the engines broke the silence. In his logbook that night Farragut wrote "I feel the time of the warrior is past I am more and more the manager of a factory of destruction."

It was a day later that the rift moved them on.

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The Kiwi passed several naval ships as they headed to the harbor the crew waved they waved back all very friendly. As they approached the mouth of the bay a harbor pilot flagged them down and asked to board, all most politely. The entrance to the bay was relatively narrow; a peninsula on eastern side, and large jetty to the west brought the mouth of the harbor down to a quarter mile channel. There was no customs inspection none of the usual questions about what they were doing here. They were simply led to anchorage and given an invitation to visit the harbor master along with this came some advice as to the best pubs in town. The harbor was crowded a large number of ships were anchored there. There was certain efficiency to the operation, a freshly painted white barrel with a large red number marked the anchorage, and the pilot explained that there was a regular taxi service these ferried sailors between ship and shore.

The group's cover stories were well rehearsed Simon Butcher was the ship's owner Duncan MacLeod was his business partner and Rap Riddle was the ships captain. So it was Butcher and MacLeod that took the water going taxi to take care of whatever business awaited them at the harbor masters office.

The taxi was a good sized wooden long boat four oarsmen provided the motive power a fifth man stirred the boat. The boat was nearly loaded when it came to the Kiwi's anchorage the little schooner was near the last stop of the ferry's route. Butcher and MacLeod inquired as to the cost of the ride and were told that all trips were free. They found seats and sat down for the inbound trip.

"What's your ship and what port are you out of?" Asked a curious sailor not long after they were underway.

"The Kiwi out of Amsterdam," answered Butcher.

"Amsterdam never heard of it," said the sailor.

"And you Sir what fine ship are you from," asked Butcher?

"The Horizon out of Krone," said the sailor pointing to one of the larger merchant ships.

Other than that there was a surprising lack of conversation on the trip in. The sailors from the various ships seemed less then willing to talk about anything other than the weather in front of the local boat's crew.

When the boat docked Butcher and MacLeod received directions to the harbor masters office and were on their way.

From the outside the harbor masters office it was obvious that Florin was a nation at war nearly half the people in the office were military not including what appeared to be four full time armed guards. Not very far into the building a long wooden desk blocked the way. A clerk addressed them from behind the desk. "Good day, how may I be of service to you today," said the clerk?

"Just made port we were told to see the harbor master," said Butcher.

"Excellent, excellent what is your ship, birth and home port, asked the clerk?

"The Kiwi birth two-seventeen out of Amsterdam," answered Butcher.

"First time here I take it could you please fill out these forms and then we can begin the process," said the clerk as he pointed at a tall table well provisioned with ink and quills.

The form was a three page affair. It seamed there were more questions on ship capacity and capabilities than on cargo. The third page asked about passengers and crew. Butcher filled out the form while MacLeod looked about. MacLeod noticed that Butcher was using his own fountain pen to fill out the form he hoped no one noticed. By about the time Butcher was on the third page another man was addressing the clerk. Macleod watched as the man complained to the clerk, it quickly became obvious that this Captain hit this port on a regular basis. His ship entered port a short time after the Kiwi. The clerk knew him. His name was Captain Quaid and he was making it quite clear that the ports procedures had changed greatly since his last visit.

Hearing the commotion the harbor master came out of his office. "Captain Quaid, I suppose you deserve an explanation," said the harbor master.

"Sir, these gentlemen are from the Kiwi a new another new ship in the harbor," interjected the Clerk.

"Well if you gentlemen will be so kind as to join myself and Captain Quaid in my office I will explain what is happening to one and all," said the harbor master.

Once everyone was comfortably seated in the office the harbor master began, "First, I welcome you all to South Port. Now, I must regrettably give you the current situation. Just over two weeks ago Prince Humperdinck placed the port under marshal rule. He suspended Gilbert Waters the master of revenue and replaced him with Commodore Vermouth. My office works under that of the master of revenue. On the plus side they tripled my staff and paid for two dredging projects that were badly needed. On the down side they would not allow any ship to leave the port from the day they took over. Five days ago I was asked to have every ship in the harbor fill out that form you see before you. I had my suspicions as to what was going on then, but today I found out what they really were doing. In the next two days every ship in the harbor will be offered a contract to haul goods and troops for the Navy. You will be compensated for your current cargo and will move in convoy under the protection of the Florin Navy. I believe it was the original intension that ships unwilling to participate to be sequestered here for two weeks for security reasons without compensation. Unfortunately the Navy and the Army did not communicate very well and I think they will be very tight on tonnage. I fear the Navy will not be willing to take no for an answer. Regrettably I am the bearer of this bad news, you are the first to know."

Quaid was angry at the announcement but knew the harbor master long enough to tell that the lifelong public servant was about as pleased with the new policy as he was. "I am glad you told me, I take it those frigates we saw coming in are not anti-piracy patrols," said Quaid.

"Let me say that they will protect any ship coming, inbound, to South Port," said the harbor master.

"You are saying that me and my ship are about to be conscripted into your navy," asked Butcher?

"More of a civilian contract as an offer we can't refuse," said MacLeod.

"An offer you can't refuse, that defiantly is a way to put it," said the harbor master. After a brief awkward silence he continued, "Of course I will do everything within my power to see you are fairly compensated but ultimately it will be Commodore Vermouth that sets the rates and he is the Count DeMonnay's man."

"Count the money," asked Quaid.

"No it's Count DeMonnay, he is a bit touchy about the pronunciation," corrected the harbor master. "He is Prince Humperdinck's new adviser he has also hired a new master of sword," continued the harbor master.

"Thank you again Bill," said Quaid to the harbor master. Turning his attention to Butcher and MacLeod Quaid asked, "Well gentlemen I am going over to one of the town's finer drinking establishments do you care to join me?"

They agreed and followed Quaid out after thanking their host.

On the way over Captain Quaid began a more formal introduction, "I am Buster Quaid Captain of the Ella and you are."

"Simon Butcher off the Kiwi glad to meet you," said Butcher.

"Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod good to meet you," said MacLeod.

"It may seem strange but old Bill Sachs, the harbor master has an uncanny talent. He has a sort of sixth sense for people and he can look at a man and take his measure. He trusts you, this means two things: you are more than you seem, and when push comes to shove you will do the right thing," explained Quaid.

Gram's Tavern was a slightly upscale tavern not far from the waterfront, usually frequented by officers of merchant ships and merchants. Quaid had explained that it was the best place in town to sell one's cargo before the Navy made its offer (an offer that would probably be less than half value at best). Quaid helped greatly with introductions at the same time, they circulated between Captains and Merchants warning them of coming events.

Now the Kiwi had a bit of a problem in order to maintain cover they would have to liquidate all their cargo. Only twenty percent of the cargo had been reconfigured for this mission. The remainder of the cargo was fully appropriate for its original cover as a small independent trader in the South Pacific in the 1940s. To say the least the contents of the ships hold were exotic by local standards. It was Duncan that proved the best at explaining and selling the goods with a maddeningly good understanding of the merchants needs.

By the time they left the Tavern their pockets loaded with bills of sale Quaid had set them a most interesting itinerary involving longshoremen, long boats, and a late night meeting a pub called the Long Bone. They left behind them a frenzy of buying and selling that would make any modern stock or commodity market proud.

It was not long after they returned to the Kiwi that the first of the long boats arrived with a load of stevedores their foreman held a copy of one of the documents from yesterday bargaining, soon they were loading cargo into their boat. This seen was soon being reenacted across the harbor as wharfies swarmed the docked merchantmen with all the energy and numbers of enraged bees.

Radioman Patrick Hollis had made contact with the Nimitz and informed them of the current situation. As Chief Miller directed the unloading of the cargo Amanda, Sydney, Simon, Rap and Duncan headed in for an evening ashore. The first order of business was finding an Inn that Quaid recommended after dinner Rap Riddle would provide escort for the ladies while Butcher and MacLeod went about other business.

Meanwhile near the north gate of town the van guard of General Perry's troops had reached town and quartering parties began staking out the locations of the city of tents that would quarter most of the army prior to embarkation.

In a hastily converted warehouse on the east side of town Commodore Wine had arranged a mess for his command. It was an odd lot consisting of marines, midshipman, and until recently retired naval officers. As soon as everyone was seated he addressed his men; "Tomorrow we begin a most important mission. Logistics is not the most glorious word in the vernacular of warfare but it is often the most important. We plan to move a large force in a very short period of time. It is our mission to see it all goes well. We will be dealing with a mass of ships not loyal to our cause it is our duty to provide backbone and resolution to that mass." He raised a glass and continued, "To Florin, our King, our Prince, and Victory!" It was not a mighty cheer but it was sufficient to wake some of the more ancient mariners in attendance.

In another part of town Prince Humperdinck addressed a small select group;" Gentlemen I would like to thank you all it seems our plans are coming together quite well. The cargo ships are doing a very good job of relieving themselves of nonessential cargo. We should be able to depart on schedule it is up to you to make sure it happens. What do you gentlemen have to report?"

"Telling the harbor master in advance proved most effective, his innate honesty and desire to protect the reputation of the port has put us well ahead in the preparation of cargo ships. It will free us from tying up funds buying unneeded cargos even paying a tenth of the true value of the cargo we would have had trouble buying it all up ourselves as is we will pay those stuck with cargo enough that we will seem and fair and gain their confidence. This should hold us in good stead when we tell them that payment for their charter will only be paid at this port on return from mission," reported Commodore Vermouth.

"What are our risks of rebellion amongst the merchant captains," asked Count DeMonnay?

"My sources say that there is only one of the captains that is has the reputation and ability to pull them all together. Captain Buster Quaid of the Ella, it is to a great extent, him you have to thank today's vigorous redistribution of cargo," said the man simply called Doninhas, Humperdinck's chief spy.

Count DeMonnay turned to Orlando Delgato his personal bodyguard and a master duelist and said, "See to it."

Delgato nodded.

At dinner that night Amanda put forth her question in a hushed voice, "You all realize that tomorrow our cover will be blown."

"How so," asked Butcher?

"We have on our ship that which will be perceived as a large useless cargo," said Amanda.

"What do you mean? We sold all the cargo." Said Butcher.

"I mean all that junk iron and combustibles we carry," said Amanda.

Butcher looked puzzled so Riddle came to his rescue and said, "She is talking about the engines and fuel."

They all went quite as the waiter came to take their order. Amanda and Sydney quickly erected a wall of miscellaneous chatter. It was not until after dinner that there was more planning.

The Long Bone was mostly known as a sailor's pub and her backrooms noted for their card and dice games. Tonight however the big back room was rented to some more upscale but still nautical clients. At first it was just a good place for the merchant captains to vent their frustrations. They had no real way to stop the Princes plans but they did what they could do to protect there own interests. They set up a system of ship to ship communications, preplanned work actions if needed and chose Captain Quaid to bargain for them as a group.

After the meeting Butcher, MacLeod, and Quaid were walking back to the docks and talking. "Well I believe that is the best we can do unless someone can pull an extra navy out of their ass," said Quaid.

MacLeod caught the man out of the corner of his eye suddenly starting to act like he was in a hurry. The man was looking but trying not to look where he was going. He knew what the man was doing though he had not seen it tried like this in over a century. As the man approached MacLeod pushed Quaid aside and allowed the man to run into him instead.

"Watch where you are going wharf scum," said the man.

"I am sorry my good man, I was having such a pleasant conversation, I must have had a lapse of attention," apologized MacLeod.

Orlando Delgato was frustrated this fool deliberately caused him to miss his mark. He would have to take care of this interloper then make the challenge to Quaid.

"You should make way for your betters you son of a baboon," said Delgato.

"Just because someone hired you to create a duel is no need to get nasty," MacLeod admonished the duelist.

"Very well I am sorry I hadn't realized I was dealing with a professional, I feel I must warn you that I am the finest swordsman in all of Florin," stated Delgato.

"Very well I feel it is only fair to warn you this is my first time in Florin," said MacLeod.

Almost simultaneously the two drew their swords and began to feel each other out. After more than a minute where neither man landed a blow Delgato remarked, "You are an excellent swordsman, it will be quite an honor to kill you."

"I think you may find that task more difficult then you can possibly imagine," replied MacLeod.

"Then I will work harder," said Delgato as he drew his main-gauche.

MacLeod skillfully avoided Delgato's attempts to trap his weapon and managed to maintain range. He then drew his own main-gauche. [For all you nit pickers both men are using rapier and main-gauche. MacLeod is not using a katana but this chapter is long enough without me putting in a back story for that. Delgato responded aggressively trying to gain the offensive not only was he unable to penetrate MacLeod's defensives he barely managed to parry several of MacLeod's attacks. Delgato's two seconds came into view watching a far longer battle then they were used to witnessing.

"Sir, My compliments to your sword master I have never seen such skill in one so young, said Delgato.

"I am older than I look," replied MacLeod.

After a series of lightning fast blows the two swordsmen paused and faced each other. In that pause Delgato said, "You are very good I have never seen a better defense."

"And you sir need a better tailor," stated MacLeod.

At that moment Delgato realized two things he was minus eighty percent of his shirt and he was in deep trouble. His seconds also realized this; one of them drew his sword. "Willard put down that sword or if this gentleman does not kill you I will," said Delgato.

The two continued desperation giving strength to Delgato's attacks. MacLeod used his opponents desperation against him combining a disarm with a judo throw reliving Delgato of his main-gauche. To his credit Delgato recovered quickly and attacked again. MacLeod trapped his blade with his parrying blade and placed a small shallow slash over Delgato's heart. MacLeod released Delgato's blade only to start a new offensive, an offensive that backed Delgato into a wall and took his remaining weapon from him. At this point MacLeod crossed the first slash with a second and brought his blade to Delgato's throat and said, "My honor is satisfied care for drinks?"

Delgato somewhat surprised by the reprieve and was temporarily at a loss for words. A few seconds later Delgato rallied his wits and said, "Drinks, an excellent idea Willard is buying. "

They escorted Quaid to the boats and then headed to the inn that Rap and the ladies were staying. When he saw the inn it was Willard's turn to realize he was in trouble, the place was a bit upscale for his pocket. They entered the Inn, formal introductions were made, and Willard purchased drinks. Delgato rescued him after the first round.

After the third round Delgato had a confession; "You know, this is the first time I failed to fulfill a contract. I do believe, I am out of a job." MacLeod bought the next round. Delgato continued;" It is a shame really, Captain Quaid is a very nice fellow, now, Knowing the Count, some cheap backstabbing assassin will try to kill him in a dishonorable matter. The Count will probably try to have me and my two companions killed as well for that matter, and to think I almost had him weaned of those shady fellows."

Amanda interrupted his musings with a question; "Forgive my ignorance Orlando. I am new to your country. Who is this Count, and what dose he have against Captain Quaid?"

"There is nothing to forgive dear lady. The Count DeMonnay is a master plotter and Captain Quaid could be the undoing of his most current plot. He and Prince Humperdinck are trying to do this war on the cheap. They do not have enough money to hire all the ships they need. If the merchant captains press too hard they do not have the money to pay them. So they have set up a system that will delay payment for as long as possible. Quaid is the one most able to unite the merchant captains. United the captains could ask too many questions. The thing you must realize is that most of the King's Officers are honorable men. If it became clearly evident the Count and the Prince intended to cheat the merchant fleet the Prince would lose their support, "said Delgato.

"If there were such proof it could well save our necks," said Willard.

"Oh, the proof exists. DeMonnay keeps careful records but they are well protected," said Delgato.

"Protected, how? Sydney asked reflectively.

As Delgato explained Amanda's smile grew predatory.

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"As far as I can tell they are using relatively low frequencies on very primitive equipment," said Zoe"

"Well if we try to go into orbit close enough for a good listen we will be seen," said Mal.

"Are you thinking of taken us planet side," asked Zoe.

"Maybe, I think I better check with West first, see if you can find us someplace out of the way," said Mal.

"I'm on it," said Zoe.

Mal radioed the Little Sara and found out West was on down time. Hay, a guy has got to sleep sometimes. At the cautious speeds they were moving they had days Mal could wait a few hours.

Two hours later Mel and West made their plans for the landing. They targeted a little island in the south pacific called Matahenua Latitude 11° 16' 60S Longitude 159° 46' 60E. An hour later they made course corrections and settled in for the trip to earth

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The Eagle, Saratoga, Bounty, and the Forlorn Hope passed through a rift that seemed to only alter there course slightly. More careful examination revealed other differences the time shift was not much but it was evident in the change in relative positions of the planets. They readjusted their course for a slow insertion into earth orbit and started listening to the transmissions from the planet. It was only four hours latter that they were once more encountered a rift.

They were just readjusting when they received a transmission directed at them. "Unidentified inter-dimensional craft please identify yourself. You are in violation of reality protection treaty two-forty-two."

The communications returned, was a mix of apology and explanations. The four ships in turn received observations and advice. They returned to lunar orbit were the data exchange continued.

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After two uneventful days Moya, the Andromeda and the Star Destroyer Balance were thrown once more into a rift. The rift dumped them about 301,000 kilometers from an inhabited planet. By the time both John Crichton and Seamus Harper identified the familiar outlines of the watery planets continents astronomers in Australia had noticed a new addition to the night sky.

Excited astronomers spread the word about the large near earth objects. It soon was all over the Internet. Conspiracy theories started linking strange electromagnetic events, two missing US Navy ships, and the space objects together.

Twenty-four hours later the objects were fifty-thousand kilometers closer to earth and NASA was picking up a transmission from the objects. John Crichton did his best to assure that they were not an alien invasion force. He was reassuring enough that the US only went to DEFCON 3 the rest of the world went to similar levels of alert.

Much to the relief of a nervous world, the huge ships were taken by a rift a day later, Crichton had told them to expect this.

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For Rich Pierce the assistant traffic controller at asteroid 511 the universe was a brighter place, he had gone two whole shifts without anything dramatic happening. No Chig invasions, no ships popping in from another dimension, and no ships disappearing. Still he was looking forward to the end of this shift he was tired. He had a bad night's sleep he kept waking up because of weird nightmares about flying saucers and flying toasters. Well in ten minutes his shift would be over and his bunk was not far away.

One minute later the alarm that McDonald had rigged up sounded as five ships varying in size from small to huge slipped out of the rift. Pierce initiated communications with the newcomers, sure the Vree were in saucer shaped craft and the Cylons had a passing resemblance to the Sunbeam T-9 toaster the important thing was that Pierce got to the end of his shift without a shot being fired.

Craig McDonald had a most interesting shift ahead of him this group brought an entire ship load of diplomats and his side now had a Russian and a British representatives in system.

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The USS Takao, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria materialized into cold dark corner of a galaxy far far away. They closed the rift behind them and took extensive sensor readings while waiting for the rift to move them onward

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Aahz took his time getting a feel for the visitors. He wanted more then introductions. They were a species very similar to Clods but from a universe with very limited availability of magic but with a fairly good tech level. Three of them were military types, one was a cop, two others were both cops and wizards, one was a wizard that was a private investigator, and then there was Mai who was more than she seemed. After the introductions Aahz made his pronouncement, "I regret to inform you that Myth Inc. is not currently taking on any new assignments.

Mai looked at Aahz and asked, "Joke powder?

This statement caused Aahz to pause for a moment, finally he said, "That has nothing to do with why we are not taking any new assignments."

"No but I might be able to offer a cure as part of your fee," said Mai.

"That would interest me but what of my associates," said Aahz.

Mai turned and looked at Commander Kidd and raised an eyebrow. Kidd took the hint and said, "I have access to considerable resources allow me to explain the situation and then you may be better able to tell us what you and your associates would consider reasonable compensation."

"Well we have nothing to louse by listening to the guy," said Tanda.

Kidd explained the whole bit about the inheritance the probe and the problems it was causing.

"So you want us to close down these holes," asked Aahz?

"No we have a team taking care of that, "said Kidd.

"You want us to retrieve the probe," asked Tanda?

"No we have a team taking care of that, "said Kidd.

"Is your team in need of some extra muscle," asked Nunzio?

"Our teams are well trained and well armed," replied Kidd.

"So what you need," asked Chumleystill in his Big Crunch persona.

Kidd glad of a question that put him back on track said, "The teams we sent are on a one way mission unless we find a way to bring them back."


	9. Chapter 9

A Voyage of Convergence

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Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence ( Chicago Convergence.htm a more fast moving story ) as part of this work I am including all references in both works in this disclaimer.

I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda,

Another Fine Myth, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Babylon 5, Back To The Future, Battlestar Galactica, Bolo(Book Series), Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Captain Ron, Charmed, Catch 22, Dark Angel, Diagnosis Murder, Doctor Who, Due South, Early Edition, Farscape, Firefly, Forever knight, Friday the 13th: The Series, Hammers Slammers (Book Series), Highlander, Indiana Jones, Knight Rider, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Lord of the Rings, Love and Curses, MacGyver, Malcolm In The Middle, Martial Law, McHale's Navy, Mech Warrior (Game), Men In Black, Murder she wrote, Nash Bridges, Night Stalker, One Thousand and One Nights,Operation Petticoat, Painkiller Jane, Pirates of the Caribbean, Quantum Leap, Quincy, Relic Hunter, Serenity, Seven Days, Sliders, Space Above and Beyond, Special Unit 2, Star Gate SG1, Star Trek, Star wars, Terminator, The Black Company (book Series), The Dresden Files, The Final Countdown, The Incredible Hulk, The Love Boat, The Odyssey, The Pretender, The Princess Bride, The Sentinel, The Wackiest Ship In The Army, The Wizard of Oz, Time Bandits. Time Tunnel, Transformers, Twenty thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Viper, Walker: Texas Range, X-Files, Whose products I have enjoyed in the past and recommend to the reader and make no claims on.

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Chapter Nine Confusion

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Moving south along the Florida coast an eclectic fleet cautiously sounded the coastal shallows trying to make progress while avoiding detection. To their north east a strange storm was barely visible on the horizon. Aboard the flag ship Tia Dalma stared at the storm. It was not to her liking. "Tis not one of mine," said Tia Dalma.

"What is it," asked Elizabeth?

"Tis not of the Sea, tis not of this World," answered Tia Dalma.

After a time the alien storm dissipated, still Tia Dalma maintained a silent vigil of the north east horizon. She maintained this watch for hours as the ships worked their way south, a vigil broken only by the laugh of a dolphin and the sound of a scurrying crab, a crab carrying a small crystal clear globe with a piece of paper inside it. She kissed the multi-legged messenger and returned him to the sea and said, "A new monster stalks the sea."

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As the storm dissipated the Nautilus dropped and anchored a buoy and began a spiral search pattern seeking the small globes it had dropped earlier. They spent hours running their pattern modifying it as they encountered shallow water to their west. By nightfall they finished their search of the semi tropical waters. By evening the stars told Nemo that this was another parallel Earth. The flora and fauna told him he was in the Atlantic. His chef told him Pompano for dinner. It was good to know the month even if the year was still a mystery.

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Well off the coast of Eastern Florida the Frigate HMS Whippet leisurely escorted two sugar laden merchant vessels as dawn crept upon the eastern horizon. For Captain Zachery Haddock and his crew it was a welcome duty. After six months of chasing rumors of pirates they were headed home escorting two well connected but nervous Captains protecting them from the self-same rumored but elusive pirates. All and all it had been an uneventful voyage thus far. As he contemplated this he saw a small object bobbing in the water. He had a crewman fish it out. It proved to be a small crystal clear globe with a piece of paper inside it.

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Out of a rift and lost, unfortunately it was becoming business as usual for Captain William Krane and the crew of Mystic Lady. This time, they caught a break they saw land on the western horizon. After a brief conference via single flags the Prospect, Mystic Lady and the Abraham Lincoln began looking for anchorage to better explore their new habitat. Somehow the virgin coastline seamed strangely familiar. It was Commander Farragut that was the first to recognize the coast he spent much of the Civil War blockading. By night fall they all had Georgia on their minds.

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One interesting advantage of modern roofing materials is that low sloop roofing is far easier to maintain and waterproof. Unfortunately South Port never heard of modern roofing. The rooftops of South Port were strictly old school. Amanda knew old school so the rooftops of South Port were no surprise to her. She moved seemingly effortlessly across the rooftops of the closely packed houses as she approached the town's City Hall. The South Port City Hall had two wings and a central tower. On the ninth floor of the ten story tower was the Mayor's Office an office that Count DeMonnay had appropriated as his own. In said office was a secret chamber. In the secret chamber was a safe containing a very private ledger also in the chamber was a featherbed of moderate size. The trick was getting the job done before the Count retired to that bed.

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Starting a war is hard work. As things come to a head there are so many last minute details. The Count DeMonnay was working hard and working late. He had been in far too many meetings into many different places. He was half asleep as his carriage came to a stop. "What's the holdup," he asked his driver?

"There is a crowd up ahead blocking the road," said the driver.

"At two O'clock in the morning!" Exclaimed the Count. He sent one of his guards to check out the commotion ahead.

The guard worked his way into the festive crowd asking questions and soon returned with an answer. "Sir, someone is giving away free beer," said the guard.

The driver attempted to find an alternate course around the masses of inebriated soldiers, sailors, and townspeople. It took an hour and a half to outmaneuver the score of strategically placed beer kegs.

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It is said that the perfect crime is one that even the victim is unaware that a crime has been committed. As Amanda returned the laptop and scanner to her backpack she made sure to cover all traces of her trespass. A short while later she observed the return of the Count's carriage from the rooftop of a nearby house she.

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The team aboard the Kiwi had returned a lot of information. Perhaps more information then Captain Harry Blake really wanted to know. Now he needed to get the team out. He had a lot of options at his disposal. He had the military capability of destroying the town several times over. The plan the team on the Kiwi gave him was a far less violent option. He would go with their plan and set up at least two contingency plans.

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The Casino on the Pacific Princess had become the staging area for a different kind of gamble. The gaming tables were covered with stacks of paper and the room was filled with people collating said papers.

"Ouch!" Said Willow Rosenberg as she nursed a paper cut.

"Are you all right Willow," asked Dawn Summers.

"I fine just a paper cut, you know all things considered this has been a great vacation, if you don't count the whole lost in time extra-dimensional no way back thingy," commented Willow.

"Are you refereeing to the lack imminent threats of death and destruction or all the hunky Sailors and Marines," asked Dawn as she gave Willow a band aid?

"Well for me it is the first thing," said Willow.

"Hey, we are not totally without imminent threats of death and destruction," chimed in Faith Lehane.

"What threats," asked Dawn.

"The ones that Spike and your sister make to any of those hunky Sailors and Marines that get to close to you," teased Faith.

"To true," said Dawn

Across the room Rupert Giles was operating a shrink-wrap machine.

While other people played a game of "Will It Float?" with the double shrink wrapped packages.

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Lt. Cmr Matt T Sherman gave the order and Sea Tiger departed on a vital mission. The Sea Tiger moved along the surface while it's crew watched for any sign of a sail.

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The Florin Frigate Percy's Pride patrolled the waters south-east of South Port. Commander Winston Parnard had orders to investigate a possible sighting of fleet. The heliograph relay of the sighting was somewhat garbled. The coast watch was neither well trained nor well funded so Parnard did not know if they saw a huge fleet of small ships or a small fleet of huge ships his mission was to find out. With the reliability of the coast watch it was quite possible that the message started out as a huge pile of cow chips. Nonetheless Commander Parnard kept his crew alert for anything that might plow the waters. Just after the fourth bell of the third watch there was a shout from the crow's nest.

"Keel Ho!" was the cry from the crow's nest. A rapid fire explanation followed it.

"Looks like a capsized ship off the port bow", said the sailor from the crow's nest.

Parnard brought the ship to port and had the crew prepare for a rescue. Through his spyglass Parnard saw a strange sight. Men standing on capsized ship with a large keel foil amid ship. The men ran into the keel foil and the ship sank with all hands. By the time they got anywhere near it the wreck slipped beneath the waves.

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It was an excruciatingly slow process. Commodore Wine mustered his men at first light.

They split into ten teams and a reserve pool. The plan called for the inspection of each ship with an overwhelming show of force. Once the ship was inspected, its captain would be offered the standard contract with the standard compensation for any cargo. If the captain proved unreasonable he would be escorted off the ship and the ship would be seized. The crew members would then be given the opportunity to serve Florin or join their captain. A prize crew was part of each team. In the event the prize crew was needed a new prize crew would be sent from the pool. The captains of the first ten ships were cooperative almost too cooperative making sure that not a nook or cranny aboard the ship was allowed to be ignored by the overly cooperative captains. This actually slowed, the operation.

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The Sea Tiger carefully slipped into the harbor the hastily added additional sonar and external video cameras made underwater navigation easier. The sub needed to get close to its target to deliver its very special ordinance. It was fortunate that the warships were using the deeper anchorages. "Torpedo one ready, sir," said Lt. Holden. "Fire One," ordered Commander Sherman. It was the first of many such attracts.

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Captain Horis Zobar was one of those rare precious phenomena that most navies dream of but never treasure. A man who's talent, integrity, and intelligence alone had generated his rapid early promotions. It was his honesty and sense of justice that made him popular with all but a few that served with him. In short he was the type of officer that most navies say they strive for. The kind of man a crew would follow to hell and back. He was also the kind of man that made political waves by his sheer lack of politics. A more opportunistic man with his record would already have reached flag rank a year ago with the rapid expansion of the navy. Instead he was Commodore Martin's Flag Captain. Martin commanded Second Squadron one of the three heavy squadrons in Admiral Schnapps' task force.

Commodore Martin had passed the word to Zobar to make ready for a departure in two days. Last night was the crews last night of liberty. Today was a day of hangovers and paperwork it was also a busy day for the ships first officer and master of arms as they toured the town locating stragglers. It was a seen repeated by much of the fleet a situation aggravated by some fool giving out free beer at some ungodly hour of the morning.

On this day Zobar had made himself officer of the watch to emphasize the importance of a timely return to duty. The port water taxi had just delivered a small load of crewmen when a crewman contemplating a dry heave off the port side was disturbed by a loud bubbling sound. Duty and fear of hull breach prompted the crewman to overcome his discomfort and report the event. He was not the only one to hear it.

The Captain Zobar ordered an inspection of the hull he also noticed the flotsam off his port side and ordered it retrieved. What was brought to him were several identical watertight bundles of documents. He could not tell what alarmed him most the way the documents were created, there method of delivery, the breach of security they represented, or the information they contained. Regardless his first duty was to get word to Commodore Martin. He sent Ensign Bowen ashore on this vital mission. His was not the only ship to recover such a bundle.

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The Florin Frigate Percy's Pride pressed on after the strange encounter with the sinking ship. For some reason Commander Parnard had this strange feeling of being watched.

High above Percy's Pride an unmanned drone monitored its movements as an out world fleet slipped by far to the south.

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Commodore Gregory Martin did not consider himself the greatest officer in the Kings navy. He was much more, a politician then a warrior. His greatest genius was his ability to surround himself with the most component people available coupled with his ability to shield them while they did what they did best. Thus Martin managed to gain a reputation that was in fact better then he felt he deserved. His reputation for modesty and reliability distinguished him from many of the kingdoms more flamboyant officers. He was not the youngest Commodore in the fleet or the oldest but he was the one, who most of the senior officers owed a favor or two to.

Commodore Martin was just coming out of a meeting with Admiral Schnapps when he was approached by an excited Ensign Bowen. He calmed the ensign down and received his report. He was just beginning to understand the implications of the package when another messenger arrived from another of his captains. He readying orders for his Squadron as the third messenger arrived his ship was anchored on the opposite side of the bay. With three messengers it would be that much quicker to distribute his orders. He sent his three messengers out with his orders, this done he sought Admiral Schnapps.

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Commodore Wine's teams were making progress but not at the speed that they expected. They had expected more resistance instead things were sickeningly sweet friendly. It was obvious to Wine that they were stalling, but what did they hoped to gain by it was a mystery.

The teams were only half ways through their third ships when the rumors hit. Somehow the secrecy of the operation was compromised. Somehow it was becoming public knowledge that the kingdom could not pay for the contracts it was writing. Wine detailed a few of his men to track down the source of the rumors. By the time his men got back with a large bundle of papers runners the first thirty ships were at his door asking for partial payment in advance. Some of his officers were somewhat less respectful then normal as they handed him the bundle of papers. He recognized the handwriting the Count DeMonnay sure kept detailed records. He asked, were they found them when he was told that there were hundreds of copies. He sent out runners to recall all the teams.

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The crew of Florin Frigate Percy's Pride saw the giant dragonfly grow from a small dot to something larger then a long boat as it passed over them, they could see it was man made (normal dragonflies do not as a rule have writing on them). It left behind it a small object that was falling slowly to the sea its descent slowed by a small round sail. The strange flying machine disappeared heading north.

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"Good afternoon Sergeant Major," said General Perry.

"I am afraid sir, this will not be a very good, may I speak freely sir, asked the Sergeant Major with a bit more formality then he usually when they were alone.

"Please do," said Perry preparing for bad news.

The Sergeant Major presented the General with a pile of papers. "These things are all over town. I think you should look at this page first it involves purchases for rations and is causing a rather negative effect on moral." As the General read his complexion grew paler the Sergeant Major continued, "Not only do these documents represent a hole in operational security large enough to drive a heard of cattle though they do not reflect well on the Prince or the Navy high command."

"Your recommendations" asked the General.

"Of all the high ranking officers in the area you are the least incriminated by these documents, sir.

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Lieutenant James Snow was in charge of the three large ballistae that guarded the east side of the mouth of the bay. When three strange men in back approached his position from the landward side he had his men give chase leaving him the only one exposed to the explosion that destroyed his ballistae a moment later. When his head stopped ringing he noticed that a similar thing had happened on the opposite side of the bay. The men in black had escaped into the sea.

Seconds later strange flying objects appeared in the sky. At that time a small schooner mysteriously began moving into the wind. The flying machines filled the bay with noise so no one heard the Kiwi's engines.

One of Commodores Bourbon's frigates began to raise sail and give chase. The wind was not helpful. One of Commodores Mescal's frigates had a better position it was at sea and had seen the two columns of smoke at the bay entrance and headed into investigate.

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As it exited the bay the Kiwi tarried to pick up the two seal teams, a frigate's sail came into view one of the Harriers that were protectively orbiting the schooner broke off. One rocket hit at the waterline rearranged the priorities of the now foundering frigate. The Kiwi was free.

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Free was not exactly the way to describe the state of Prince Humperdinck and Count DeMonnay with the entire army, half the navy, and a large number of angry merchant marines after him at large was a better description.

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It was not long after the Sea Tiger and the Kiwi rejoined their strange fleet that a rift took them all to another world.

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"All units this is King stand by to go atmospheric" said Captain. Nathan West.

His squadron and the two freighters acknowledged and the operation they planed the night before began, half of the Hammerheads provided, close air support to the two ISSAPCs as they secured the LZ. With the LZ secured they guided in the Serenity and the Little Sara throughout the operation the remaining Hammerheads provided a fighter cap. It was while they still had six Hammerheads flying CAP that Cooper Hawkes received a message he picked up a transmission he could not ignore. "This is Goonybird, I've spotted your lost lamb if you Jarheads will give me some cover I will get him out."

Hawkes quickly checked with West ten ordered four fighters to maintain the CAP while he and his wingman checked it out.

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"French is down and I am low on fuel" radioed Lt. Robert Boyle.

"Pruitt and I are on it Bobby boy," returned Lt. Jerry Bragg.

"This is Goonybird I'm going in" said therescuee plane.

"Bragg check your three we got company," said Lt. Jeb Pruitt.

"Shit," was Bragg's only response as he and his wing man tried to gain some altitude before engaging the twelve incoming Zeros.

The two Corsairs managed to down two Zeros on their first aggressive pass the two outnumbered birds were in a climbing weave when a friendly but unfamiliar voice came over the radio. "Is this a private party or could you guys use a hand," asked 1st Lt. Cooper Hawkes.

"The more the merrier," replied Bragg.

A 70mm Electro-magnetically driven railgun with depleted Uranium rounds coupled to a super accurate targeting system was a slight bit of overkill on a Japanese Zero. In less then a six A6Ms had fallen to an as yet unseen foe. Panicked the last four Zeros tried to break contact three more were vaporized by the thunder from above while the last one was run down by the Corsairs.

"Thanks," said Bragg as the two strange craft that looked like they were flying backward came into view.

Hawkes only reply was a simple, "Semper Fi!"

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Commodore Glen van Ross was not precisely fond of having other people's political problems dumped in his lap. Lately it seemed that events were conspiring to bring him a new complication with every breath. He now had a missing Marine Squadron, a group of unexpected allies from three different dimensions, a Russian Admiral marooned on his ship, and an uncontrolled extra-dimensional voyage of indeterminate length. Now after getting the only real intelligence about what is going on plus news of his lost Squadron he could only philosophically accept the price of said information. At least among the flotsam that comprised this fleet he unwitting joined was one old friend Colonel Tyrus Cassius McQueen joined him as he headed down to the landing bay. The two discussed the little fleet of pirates, rebels, and refuges all with higher tech levels then they had and the fact they were inheriting their latest guests simply because they had the biggest ship with the most room.

Admiral Georgiy Egorov joined them at the landing bay along with the team chosen for the formal reception. In the bay four fighters and two shuttles waited for pressure equalization. When the indicator went green the honor guard took their positions.

The four foot tall teddy bears that came off the shuttle did their part of the barding ceremony with all the discipline and bearing of their thousands year old military tradition. The Ursoid Assistant Deputy Ambassador charged with the rescue of their missing Ambassador presented his credentials. Two humans a dog and two annelids UNTFISC agents all, wearing their distinctive black suites, were the last to disembark.

After the formal reception and debrief one of the two worms in black suites asked CPO Rodriguez, "donde está el café?"

Ross became more acutely aware that this was going to be a long mission.

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Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"

John Crichton never had any plans for joining the diplomatic service. Yet here he was trying to convince another earth that the three huge ships orbiting the planet were not an invasion force, at least this time there were no missing warships to explain. What was most disconcerting was the knowledge that the two ships other than Moya were each capable of razing a planet. After he finally managed to calm them down about the whole treat of imminent invasion thing he was hit with requests for a wide verity of offers for exclusive trade. He was starting to develop a real empathy with Michael Rennie. He decided to only honor one an interview with Larry King Live after his next sleep cycle.

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The year is 2065 and this sure as hell is not Babylon 5

The AeroTech 980B was one of the most heavily produced median civilian freighters with interstellar capabilities in human use (well in this universe anyway). Not all AeroTech 980Bs were manufactured by AeroTech. The design was licensed to nine other companies. The design was also in the AI database and was in manufacture in a small factory in a remote star system that cared nothing about AeroTech intellectual property. The free trader LacyAnn was ship of such origin. You might call it a cheep knockoff except the AI factory had better quality control than AeroTech.

The documentation on the LacyAnn was a true work of art. It was not quite a real forgery there once was a real LacyAnn the victim of a rather inelastic collision with an asteroid. Their agent purchased the wreck. Then it was all a simple repair procedure; remove nameplate, replace ship.

From the outside the LacyAnn was no different then any of its more legitimate cousins, however on the inside she had secrets. The additional radio equipment was well hidden enough to pass most normal inspections. The passengers in the three cabins with a different atmosphere and the AI crew were another matter. The three Chig Fi

The events of the last few weeks were not the type of thing that made life easier for a spy ship. Not only did the Carbonites get pull new powerful allies literally out of nowhere they now had the resources in system to prevent the LacyAnn's escape. With the more systematic patterns of inspection detection was no longer a question of if, but when. It is times like this that an AI might contemplate the concept of some universal fractal rigging random events for ones personal inconvenience. Deciding such thoughts could lead to paranoia, religion, or a waste of processing time the AI crew instead created a list of fourteen options and began shuffling cards. Invoking the quotation "the game may be rigged but is the only game in town," they had one of the Chigs pick a card. It was a Joker.

For the last three days Rich Pierce the assistant traffic controller at asteroid 511 had been dealing with gray aliens, flying toasters, and extra dimensional diplomats every time he came on shift. This latest fleet the rift brought him was dedicated to the principle of political neutrality. Both sides knew that the rift would claim this latest group of outsiders sooner or later. All local shipping was staying away from the extra dimensional ships least they get caught in the rift. About a third of the way through his shift that changed a median sized civilian freighter was heading strait toward the Cylon Basestar. Pierce could ping the registration of the ship an AeroTech 980B called the LacyAnn the ship did not respond to his hails. He gave a warning to the visitors.

Six Cylon raiders quickly surrounded the wayward freighter, it became immediately cooperative.

Delenn was having a rather interesting conversation G'Kar when they were interrupted by an urgent call from Vulpa Eleven.

"Delenn I know you are aware of the freighter we intercepted," said Vulpa Eleven.

"Yes, you said they were cooperative and you did not perceive them as a threat," said Delenn.

"That is true but there has been a complication that I think, requires your diplomatic expertise," replied Vulpa Eleven.

"Very well what is the situation," asked Delenn?

"I am not familiar with the concepts of political asylum or internment of a belligerent by a neutral power, and the beings of that ship are requesting one or the other," said the Cylon Commander.

The diplomatic discussion lasted well into Craig McDonald's shift when it was made academic in that universe by the actions of the rift.

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"This has to be the most boring place in the Multiverse," said Vala Mal Doran.

"It is very peaceful here," observed Teal'c

"We did find that navigational marker," said Dr. Daniel Jackson.

"That is warning everybody in this galaxy to avoid this area as a hazard," said Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell

"It is my belief that the rift has taken one or more ships from this universe," said Samantha Carter.

"Do you think we will catch up with them," asked Jackson.

"More then likely if the chain of rifts is finite," answered Carter.

"Somehow I do not think they will be to happy to see us," said Mitchell.

"How do you figure that," asked Vala?

"The whole burning all our bridges behind us bit," explained Mitchell.

"Oh," was muttered by the rest of the team.

They had a couple of days more to contemplate the problem before the next rift took them.

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"So you basically need help with transportation," asked Aahz?

"Yes, but there is a secondary issue," said Commander Kidd.

"And what would that be," asked Aahz?

"The probe opened rifts in several dimensions and it is quite possible that other intelligent beings wondered into the rifts. Once the rift is active all it needs to open is proximity and an adventurous sprit to activate it," offered Kidd.

"That is for all practical purposes a trap for explores. Who in their right minds designs automatic random abduction machines, little grey aliens," said Tanda sarcastically.

"Exactly," answered Kidd. There was a long pause as Kidd passed a picture of Loki around.

After the pause they got down to business. The next question Aahz had was how to find the missing teams, he was told they had a location device. At that point it was time to discuss price.

Several hours later they completed the negotiation of an agreement that included putting the team up for the night. In the morning the shopping began. While Tanda guided the visitors through he Bazaar in search of useful items Aahz went about acquiring transportation.

For Aahz this involved a meeting with a Deveel named Berkly who ran a recruiting agency.

"So how can I help you this time," asked Berkly?

"I have another government contract," said Aahz.

"Eliasiane," asked Berkly?

"A much younger race called the Tau'ri," said Aahz.

Aahz slid the deveel an NDA. The Deveel read it carefully.

After a few minutes the Deveel put down the agreement and said "Same as last time, you do know that death by dismemberment clause makes me nervous?"

"It is supposed to, as I have said before, we Prevects like a contract with some teeth in it," smiled Aahz displaying the kind on dentition that could make a great white shark jealous.

The Deveel signed the agreement and asked the really important question, "How deep are their pockets?"

"This is a fixed rate contract with a few bonuses so we are arguing percentage here," stated Aahz.

"Well I have a few upfront questions," said the Deveel.

"Fire away," said Aahz.

"The gold looks strait forward enough, but what the hell is Naquadria," said the Deveel?"

"An energy source," stated Oz.

"Tech worlds do love their energy sources. I see a ZPM on the list, impressive," said Berkly.

"You will note, the per-head bonus is in gold," said Aahz.

"Nice," admitted Berkly as he studied farther. After a moment the Deveel asked, "What's with this real estate deal," asked Berkly?

"Just what it says planet, one each, uninhabited with stargate," said Aahz.

"I will need to talk to my cousin Herb he is in real estate," said Berkly.

"One question from my side first how do you plan to do the heavy lifting," asked Aahz.

"We can use the Rod of Army Summoning all you need do is have a wizard use a witness spell on the signing then get the rod to the destination and activate," said Berkly.

"I will meet with the client you call your cousin and make him sign the NDA, we will get down to the negotiations tomorrow," said Aahz.

The negotiations took three days while other preparations were made. When the ink was finally dry the waiting began.


	10. Chapter 10

A Voyage of Convergence

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence ( .com/Story-12939/tenwaters+Chicago+ a more fast moving story ) as part of this work I am including all references in both works in this disclaimer.

I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda,

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O O O O O O O O O O

-Chapter Ten Passages

_O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O _-

Elizabeth's Fleet headed into the Florida Strait they were bound for a spot on the west coast. The Map referred to the island as Capo D'Aquada. It was in passing through that they spotted the sails. Five eastbound ships grew larger and bolder as the distance closed.

The Fleet executed a simple plan raising British colors. On some ships a rapid change of wardrobe was also made. As the ships passed the pseudo-British convoy saluted a Spanish Flotilla consisting of two Frigates and three ships of the line. It was after all a time of peace.

That night there was another passing. A floating phantom pasted the fleet. The Flying Dutchman brought great fear to the uninformed. However on the flagship it was waving, blown kisses, and a babe held up for view and a proud father that disappeared into the mist.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

The Frigate HMS Whippet escorting two sugar laden merchant vessels through the night. The night's quite was broken by a cry from the watch. Off the starboard stern a light was spotted. The light, bright beyond the normal glowing of the sea, rapidly overtook them and passed beneath them.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

The Abraham Lincoln's and Mystic Lady's captains checked their charts they checked the stars. The latitude was right. The coastline and the maps were so similar it just had to be the right location. More than thousand years would reshape things some but not so much to lose the general lay of the land. The virgin marshes, swamps, and forests gave no sign that they might one day yield to. This was the spot were in many universes would be a city. Missing was the city of Savanna. They continued north up the coast and encountered only the next rift.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

Nothing travels faster then bad news. It was only a few weeks after the disaster that 'Amir received word of the massacre. To almost all the merchants of Basra except 'Amir this was in fact good news, but much to the consternation of all other powers within the Caliphate, no one could claim responsibility for what befell the pirate village.

For 'Amir his first response was to family, he sent ships to relocate his nephew Aasim before old enemies could take advantage of his weakened, position to extract revenge.

Rumors abounded in the port other ships were overdue or missing. Sailors and merchants worried and tales of ships crewed by Jinn moved about the port.

Well out at sea Thaqib heard none of these rumors as he captained his ship. What concerned him was the storm that placed him well south and west of where he wanted to be. Today however, was a new day. With a fair wind and plenty of fresh water, captured from the storm, he gave thanks to Allah the most merciful. He headed north.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

Aboard the USS Nimitz Captain Harry Blake was being briefed on the results of his latest aerial intelligence missions. His staff had prepared the maps and photographs to answer three vital questions, where are we, when are we, and what do we face. The first high altitude photos showed the Arabian Peninsula, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and their current position in the Arabian Sea. There was a collective groan of recognition; the last mission, the carrier was on prior to its involvement with rifts was in the Persian Gulf (well at least they had lots of recon to compare with). They then were shown side-by-side close-up views of known settlements. The most telling photo was of Baghdad. As best they could tell they were looking at the height of the Abbasid Caliphate somewhere between 661 to 750 AD or its equivalent in this dimension. They did not know how long they would be here so once again they had to deal with the issue of human intelligence. Plans had to be made hopefully with less impact there last intelligence success.

A short time later aboard the Pacific Princess a discussion took place. The objective was to find a way to gain some local intelligence with a minimum of risk. The meeting lasted about two hours, and they actually came up with a nice simple plan.

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It might be noted that a few other things were going on aboard the Pacific Princess. For instance you may have wondered what happened to Orlando Delgato, Willard, and Vergil. Ok you probably are not wondering about Vergil, he was Orlando's other second and he was never mentioned till now. However, the three of them were on the Kiwi when it left South Port. Not long after the Kiwi returned to the fleet the trio was given quarters aboard the Pacific Princess. This was of particularly good for Vergil who was subject to bouts of seasickness and he welcomed the larger, more stable ship as well as such modern wonders as Dramamine. On deck nine the fitness center had made a rather interesting metamorphosis. It had become more and more a dojo as the voyage continued. At this time Sensei Duncan MacLeod was working with a group of advanced students Orlando Delgato, Willard, and Vergil were part of the class along with Amanda, Angel, Buffy Summers, Cordell Walker, Faith Lehane, Frank Parker, Jane Vasco, Nick Knight, Sammo Law, Spike, Sydney Fox. The warm up was routine.

After the warm up MacLeod went into lecture mode; "There are times when you want option other then killing or disabling your opponent. In Today's lesson we on going to work on several of these techniques for controlling your opponent as well as the situation." He went through several techniques and after each technique had the group break into pairs and practice the technique. After they practiced unarmed techniques MacLeod brought out the weapon of the day, handcuffs. MacLeod had Spike repeat his comment so the rest of the class could enjoy it. He then had Walker and Law demonstrate some techniques. In another words to the casual observer, it was fairly boring until the sparing session at the end of the lesson. The first match was a two on one Willard, and Vergil trying to handcuff Faith the match ended with Vergil handcuffed to Willard. Amanda gave a quick mini lesson on ways to get out of handcuffs.

On the same deck in the internet Café Willow Rosenberg, Sean Radmon, and Riley Jensen were conducting a salvage operation they had taken some older PC that were found in store rooms and other locations on the various ships and restoring them to usefulness. "I see you got that old Dell working, how did you do it, asked Riley?

"It was a virus," answered Sean.

"That's odd I tried just about every anti-virus I brought," said Riley.

"I used one Willow wrote," said Sean.

"Neat, how is this anti virus different from the other, Riley asked turning to the red head.

"Not that much, I used an open source scanning routine, a fair sized fault library, and added an exorcism and a blessing to the cleansing routine," explained Willow.

While Riley stood there open mouthed Willow said,"You get three more questions."

*********************************************************-

"All right you pirates lets get moving exhorted Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale.

"What's up skipper," asked Christy?

"We are taking a little trip over to the Richard and picking up a few Gyrenes," said McHale.

"Marines, why are we picking up Marines," asked Ensign Parker?

"They wanted to give us a little extra muscle, and one of them talks what they believe, is the local lingo," answered McHale.

**********************************************************-

Aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) First Lieutenant Walter Garland prepared his group for a mission. He carefully selected just seven men from his platoon because he was sure they were the best he could find for the mission also that was all there would be room for on the small boat. Seven veterans, Staff Sergeant James McFadden did a quick role call, the inspection that followed was as informal and purposeful. They double checked equipment weapons and supplies. Prepared and briefed they awaited their ride.

Ten minutes later Lieutenant Garland and his team boarded the PT boat. McHale handled the introductions and gave one last briefing before they departed.

"Ok, before we begin I want you Marines to know your way around the seventy-three. The Lieutenant here brought us a bag of goodies and his men will show us how to use them,' said McHale.

After a bit of show and tell they were underway.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

The fair wind out of the south persisted well into the evening. Thaqib and his men were in good spirits at least until the strange bird blotted out the moon. Then the men's talk turned to ill omens and Rocs that flew by night. Things had calmed down by the time they heard the noise. It was a faint rumble at first, coming from the north and growing slowly. It was a boat moving quickly toward them barely visible against the night. It passed them then came about and caught up with them again taking up a position an arrow's flight away. Out of the darkness a voice called out to them, its accent was strange but understandable. These were no monsters just some strange sailors on another ship wishing to talk. Only the one named Farhan new more then a few words of Thaqib's language yet they all seamed friendly enough, once they got past the first encounter. Friendly or not these men had the look of warriors. Thaqib dealt with them with care he sailed to their great floating cities he learned from them tricks of navigation he traded with them for items of wonder then sailed for home.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O _-

Two days after Thaqib ship left them the Captain Harry Blake's motley fleet departed through a rift.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

After a few days of fresh air, coconuts, and fresh fish West, Reynolds, and Vansen decided being in the middle of a war zone however primitive the combatants was less then healthy. The plan they came up with was simple, they spent a good bit of time studying the photos they had of the planet, and headed for an uninhabited region on the planes of Argentina. They moved in a tight formation, the hammerheads protecting the freighters, not long after liftoff, a rift hit them again.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

One good thing about three days of leisurely planetary orbit in a galaxy far far away in a dimension you never heard of Lando finally got around to having that talk with Ben it only took an hour. Ben was adapting better to the shifting universes enough to make a few theories as to the cause of his discomfort. Each universe was somehow different the force alien to him after each shock of separation he adapted trying to allow his force sensitivity to come into balance with the new universe. The really bad part was just as he started to tune to one universe it was rift time again. Lando was developing some theories as well, actually more like estimates, estimates of the prices raktajino and chocolate could command if he ever could get home with them.

*****************************************************-

To Aronad Harf the difference between marketing and diplomacy was becoming evident. In this case his marketing worked to well. Two java addicted annelids had located the source of all raktajino in this hodgepodge fleet and were trying to transfer their quarters to the HMS Bounty. "We are a small ship and have little additional living space," complained the Andorian.

"We are not a very large species we do not take up much room," replied the worm named Jeff.

Mudd had told the Andorian their was no way he wanted the coffee guzzlers anywhere near his cargo and so the diplomatic duty of convincing the worms that moving to the Bounty was not a good idea fell to Harf. Watching Tul Ghobe' eating lunch gave Harf a sudden inspiration. Dropping to a whisper and getting close to the communicator Harf said, "There is also a safety issue we have a Klingon on board."

"That's nice I shall be glad to meet him they grow wonderful coffee," replied Jeff.

"And I am sure he would love to eat you, after all gagh is one of the favorite foods of Klingons. You might even say that Klingons like gagh as much as you like coffee," said Harf.

"What is gagh," asked Jeff?

The Andorian shifted the viewer so Jeff could see the Klingon security officer enjoying his meal. Jeff withdrew his request for transfer to the HMS Bounty.

Fortuitously the next rift hit before Aronad Harf had to do any more diplomacy.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

"This is Larry King, tonight we are here with Captains Dylan Hunt, John Crichton, and Dean Pault the three captains of the inter-dimensional spaceships currently orbiting our planet. First gentlemen I would like to welcome you to Earth and Larry King Live," said the interviewer.

"On behalf of my colleges and myself thank you," said Crichton.

"First the question that we all want to know is what brings you to our planet," asked the host?

"Actually we are here quite by accident. We are caught in a chain of inter-dimensional tears in the multiverse. Each of our ships is from a different universe and different times within those universes. We are trying to find out what caused these tears so we can get back home again and figure a way to permanently close them. We believe some intelligent life created the rifts form and are slowly taking us to their source. Unfortunately the tears get worse each time someone falls through them. We hope to find a way to shut down the rips before they do any major damage," said Hunt.

"What do you mean by major damage," asked King?

"It is just your usual end of existence on an unimaginable scale type problem," said Crichton.

"It is not an immediate problem and we believe we can solve it," added Pault.

"How much time do we have," asked King?

"Our best guess gives you at least a couple centuries before it gets bad enough to start eating planets. About one-hundred twenty of your years before it starts causing major local disasters. Right now you only have to worry about it grabbing ships, planes, and automobiles so if you notice an area of high electromagnetic interference don't go their unless you really want to get on the same tour, we are on," said Crichton.

There were more question and answers about the travelers and their worlds. The show had record ratings.

*****************-

According to their best guess (Trance Gemini's) they had about ten more days till the next rift grabbed them. The residents of this earth requested to send a science expedition of their own. After some debate between ships they agreed to take an expedition with them providing that the expedition provided their own habitat, and supplies they also charged, a small portage fee for lifting the habitat and a few other items into orbit. It took seven days for the UN Security Council mission to be assembled. It took far less time for nations and corporations to take advantage of a one time only lift to orbit rate of five hundred dollars a pound. It was a busy week.

Out of a clear blue North Carolina sky the Transport Pod quietly descended coming to a hover over the parking lot of a local strip center. Five passengers disembarked and begin a quick survey of the various signs and logo's of the assemblage of shops. One such sign is immediately recognized by the tallest male in the party and the group proceeds to the shop. After two day of moving satellites, shuttle modules, and a good sized chunk of an inflatable hotel into space it was time for a little shore leave. And so it was that John and Aeryn Crichton carried their young son D'Argo into a small North Carolina pizza joint with Chiana and Seamus Zelazny Harper tagging along. John passed a moment to sample the aroma before going to the counter.

"Hello and welcome to Dominic's Pizzeria," said the young man behind the counter.

"Yes, I would like a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and four cokes," declared John Crichton.

"That will be twelve ninety-eight, say, are you the guy that was on Larry King three nights ago, asked the young man.

"Well I was one of the guys, but this is strictly a family outing so take a fifty dollar tip and don't go telling all your friends for a few hours, OK," said Crichton handing him a prepaid Visa debit card.

"No problem Mr. Crichton," said the young man.

"Thanks, and where's the parmesan," said John.

Ten minutes later. "Pepperoni pizza and cola food for the gods!" Exclaimed Harper. "How did you find this place," asked Harper?

"Born and raised in North Carolina just trying to see how parallel this parallel universe is," said Crichton.

"And," asked Aeryn?

"Better crust here," commented Crichton between bites.

After their feast they made an active tour of the rest of the stores in the area they had some heavy shopping to do, starting with video, and music, then moving onto clothing, and hardware finally finishing with Piggly Wiggly.

*****************-

After several missions placing primitive satellites in orbit Lambda-class shuttle 247 was on the move to pickup a special cargo. Flight Lieutenant Zarck skillfully piloted the shuttle through the gray and rainy sky. The landing zone was a large flat area paved with a mixture of tar and gravel marked with a strange pattern of parallel yellow lines. A refrigerated ground transport awaited their arrival. Zarck made a pinpoint landing and lowered the cargo ramp. A protocol droid and two crewmen walked down the ramp to meet two men from the large wheeled vehicle. A cargo handling droid soon joined them. While the four men and the cargo droid transferred the frosty cargo, the protocol droid checked inventory against a bill of material. "Allergy test kits, Buttered Pecan, Chocolate, Chip, Cookies 'n Cream, French Vanilla, Homemade Vanilla , Mint Chocolate Chip, Natural Vanilla Bean, Orange Swirl, Pecan Pralines 'n Cream, Rocky Road, more Rocky Road it is Captain Pault's favorite, Strawberry, Buttered Almond, Cherry Vanilla, Chocolate Brownie, Coffee, Fudge Brownie Nut, and Neapolitan," read the protocol droid.

Now you may be wondering how the Captain of a Star Destroyer developed the idea of a few truck loads of ice cream as a moral booster. It started shortly after Crichton's little shopping trip. Captain Hunt held a quite little dinner aboard the Andromeda for the purpose of planning for the UN Security Council mission. Harper provided the desert Rocky Road Ice Cream. Harper had already taped into the planet's primitive Internet it did not take him long to set up the deal with a moderate sized Texas Creamery. Between satellite placement, supply runs to the international space stations, grocery, and milk (frozen and flavored) runs like this the Balance's Lambda-class shuttles were kept very busy.

*************************-

The Eureka Maru was doing the heavy lifting, from whole groups of cargo containers, to hastily readied add-ons to the international space station Beka Valentine's ship was the real workhorse. It was little wonder that as the time in system was nearing its end that the Maru was the ship lifting the UN mission's platforms into space. Having to meet the need for a space capable habitat and supplies the Nations of this Earth came a simple expedient, the main habitat would be two nuclear submarines the Dmitry Donskoi and the Texas with addition supplies to be carried in large pallets in vacuum safe sub-containers. The larger Dmitry Donskoi was placed aboard the GADF Star Destroyer Balance while the Texas was brought aboard the Andromeda Ascendant. Most of the addition supplies wound up on Moya. After the UN loads were secured Beca and Harper made one last mission picking up a load Harper had assembled and packed for him by an agent in Singapore.

"How much junk did you buy," asked Beca.

"Well you try to spend Fifteen Billion Euros in less than a week, on a world this backward, I got everything off all the lists we made and then had to get inventive," complained Harper.

"Somehow it seams against some law of nature that I had to do all the hauling while, you got to do the shopping," complained Beca.

"Trance helped," said Harper defensively.

"And I have been stuck with Rhade on most of the runs," fumed Beca.

"You got me there, but as your relatives go --," said Harper.

"Don't go there, we have a landing to do," interrupted Beca.

Things were all business after that, inspecting cargo, attaching bucky cables, lifting out of the gravity well. About twelve hours after their return to Andromeda the rift again took them.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

The Alliance police ship ChenYuan was chasing shadows and ghosts, mile long ghosts but uncooperative ghosts nonetheless. Once again they were chasing the image of large ships that appeared in a massive electromagnetic event cumulating with a spike in the 590 and 600 nanometers range. Once again before they could close on the three huge phantoms they disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared leaving enough evidence behind to indicate something was there. After the reporting the last three monster ships they spent days tracking down every stay whiff of gas and ion trail they could find. After days of exhaustive research they began to move on again only to detect another event.

****************************************-

Not long after they entered the new universe, the USS Helin detected the presence of a native craft heading toward their position. Commander Vincent Tangora immediately reported the sighting to the Vree. Jul transmitted a message to the approaching ship warning them of the dangers of the rift.

****************************************-

Lieutenant Commander Vladimir Brooster commanding the Alliance police ship ChenYuan was closing on a new set of elusive intruders as the distance closed his sensors began to make out the shapes of the objects. The first image to resolve was a large double disk, then two smaller disk shape objects were resolved two other objects remained only vague and shapeless masses. At this time the ChenYuan began receiving Jul's transmission. After weeks of chasseing shadows he now had contact, contact with flying saucers and gray aliens. He began relaying all transitions back to base as he attempted to close and negotiate.

Five days later Commodore John Fang of Alliance Cruiser Austin led a small fleet to investigate the disappearance of the ChenYuan, in route he reviewed the three days worth of data the ship transmitted before it disappeared with the alleged aliens.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

Everyone has one of those days were getting out of bed in the morning seems to be an ill-advised and unpleasant venture. Rich Pierce the assistant traffic controller at asteroid 511 was averaging one such day out of every three. On this day it all started innocently enough with a small incident in the cafeteria. Not only did it cause him to miss breakfast he was the one who had to set up the investigation, as to how powdered egg, powdered milk, and flower had gotten near enough an open flame to cause an explosion. Somehow, Pierce felt a little safer with those two cooks in the medical wing as he chewed his food bar.

The damage to the kitchen proved to be minor and things were under control by lunch. Contrary to the ongoing scuttlebutt, his bologna sandwich failed to detonate and the day was looking up. Things only continued to improve as the shift wore on. It was not until he was down to the last two hours of his shift that the results of multiple universes conspiring against him became evident in another rift opening.

*****************************-

Compared with the last universes this rift stop was very much a hub of activity," said Vala Mal Doran as the sensors snapped back on line after the rift crossing.

"It looks like the rift opening was a bit more energetic, this time," observed Samantha Carter.

"I have incoming communications, I think they are trying to talk to us," said Daniel Jackson. Isolating the single Jackson played it so everyone could here it.

"This is sector 511 traffic control to inter-dimensional travelers we bid you welcome," said the broadcast.

"Greetings we are the Tau'ri we come in peace, our mission is to attempt to contain damage to your universe by a dangerous technology used by an ancient and now extinct race from our universe." broadcasted Daniel Jackson.

"Are you here to shut down the rifts?" asked traffic control.

"I would first like to apologize for any trouble or inconveniences the rift may have caused you. We realize you may have lost ships to the rift others have. To that end we request any listing of any beings lost to the rift or any ships that may have pasted through your area. We realize by now you scientists have noted the dangers inherent in the growing instability of the rift and only ask your indulgence while we shut it down. You may observe us closely while we shut down our entry rift. We must however caution you to keep a distance while we depart least another ship be drawn along with us," returned Jackson.

Moments later video contact was established things were still fairly moving along smoothly until Jackson turned communications over to Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell.

"John, John Crichton is that you," asked Rich Pierce the assistant traffic controller.

"No the name is Cameron Mitchell, Lieutenant Colonel United States Air Force why do you ask," replied Mitchell.

"We had a ship through here, a living ship, a guy on it was a dead ringer for you," said Pierce.

"It sort of makes sense, we are dealing with parallel universes," explained Carter.

The Star Gate Teams closed the rift it took more time and energy then the other rifts they closed. The Federation Ship and the Star Gate teams were eventually given copies of all the audio and video logs of contacts with the other ships from the rift. It was the first time they could appreciate the enormity of the dislocations. On the lighter side everyone had a good time kidding Vala and Cam about how cute the baby was. They left the dimension behind without any additional incidences.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O -

One of the best things about a retainer is you get paid for sitting around doing nothing. One of the worst things about a retainer is you get paid for sitting around doing nothing. All and all it was not a bad gig for Harry Dresden it meant the rent was paid, the electric stayed on, and the was ready and waiting to ring. It also meant learning a few new spells and a weekly trip to Deva to deliver a retainer fee to Myth Inc. It also meant that he had to tell any perspective clients that his time may be unexpectedly preempted. He worked a case or two during this time but that is another story.


End file.
